Fierce, feminist voices.

Riot in Your Throat began as an idea during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 when Courtney LeBlanc found herself teleworking 100% of the time and struggling to keep herself sane and engaged. Dissatisfied by the experience with her first publisher – in fairness her first collection did come out in March 2020, the same week the pandemic shut down the world – Courtney wondered if she could do better. She wanted to offer poets more: more support, more communication, more promotion, more connectedness. She wanted to see more of the voices she craved – fierce, feminist voices – in the world and she wanted to be a part of it. The idea took root, and with both an MBA and an MFA – a truly unusual combination – Courtney knew she was well-suited to start a poetry press. With a goal of focusing on fierce, feminist voices, she launched Riot in Your Throat in 2021.

Courtney LeBlanc, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Courtney is a poet who believes in amplifying others and focusing on poetry that punches you in the gut and refuses to be quiet. She has an MBA from University of Baltimore and an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She is the author of Her Whole Bright Life, winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize; Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters. Her fourth collection, Her Dark Everything, is forthcoming in 2025. She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate and she loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning.