Professional Nightmares

Cassidy Wilkins is a poet and former corporate worker whose writing explores the intersection of labor, identity, and survival in late-stage capitalism. After spending years in various office jobs that left her creatively depleted and physically exhausted, Wilkins made the difficult decision to leave professional life and pursue writing full-time.

Wilkins holds a degree she is still paying off and lives in a city she can barely afford with a partner who understands why she sometimes needs to sit in silence and stare at walls. When not writing, they tend a small container garden on their fire escape, read obsessively, and try to remember what hobbies feel like.

She believes poetry should tell the truth about how we actually live, not how we pretend to live. Professional Nightmares is her first book. She hopes it won’t be her last, but she is also learning not to make promises about the future.