SURVIVING PETER PAN
A NEVERLAND JOURNEY TO HEALING AFTER NARCISSIST ABUSE
Surviving Peter Pan is a poetry collection with a deep red ink stain of "reclamation" branded upon the classic Peter Pan tale by J.M Barrie. Told from the perspective of the inhabitants (particularly women) of Neverland overcoming the trials of loving a narcissist (Peter Pan). By examining the bittersweetness of motherhood, womanhood, childhood, and the relationships between families, fantasies, and healing, Surviving Peter Pan holds your inner child in open palms while lighitng it on fire. It shines on your pain while sprinkling a little fairy dust on your soul. The collection is so unexpected, you'll never look at growing up the same again.
This poetic project was completed through Community Literature Initiative as a TA in the Fall 2023 and won the Winter 2023 Chapbook contset with Beyond The Veil Press.
Signed copies available through my Etsy Store or buy from Amazon.
BRIEF & BLEEDING MARGINS
POEMS & LYRIC ESSAYS ON THE BRIEF & BLEEDING HISTORY OF NOW
Brief & Bleeding Margins is the rawest glimpse into my personal journey. “Brief” in the sense that readers take in smatterings of me through short autobiographical prose that acts as titles, taking the current trend of long titles and turning it up to 12. These expository titles bear witness to the sentiments that unfold within the collection: politics (BLOODY POLITICS), my emergence between girlhood-womanhood (EMERGING, BRIEFLY), my complicated but honest take on the pain and beauty of motherhood (MOTHER’S BLOOD), and finally the experience healing through the creative process (BRIEF META-POESY). “Bloody” in the sense that I allowed myself to be literal—as a woman: I bleed, and my existence holds that truth to be self-evident. It speaks to the truth that we all bleed, scab, heal, then bleed again…and again. Brief & Bleeding Margins is for the hurt and healing of the world, because we are, after all, just the marks in the margins—the scratches as swirls we make when trying to make our pen work again.
Brief & Bleeding Margins is available World Stage Press.
BRIDGING THE GAP:
POEMS & ETHOS FOR EMILY WARREN ROEBLING
EMILY SPANS ACROSS HISTORY, THIS COLLECTION IS BUILT WITH HEART
Emily Warren Roebling stepped into the role of Chief Engineer de Facto to complete the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in the late 1880's. This remarkable feat impacted the story of STEM with resilience and triumph. But it's the intersectionality of feminism, racism, and the role of women in society that etches the ethos of Emily Roebling's life.
Bridging the Gap: Poems & Ethos for Emily Warren Roebling is filled with history, humor, sadness, and science. It builds on facts--intertwining stories from an era long gone but still ringing true today. Bridging the Gap is about the sacrifices women make in the face of motherhood, professional livelihood, marriage, and the will to make progress on all fronts. The story of Emily Roebling spans across these pages, but more importantly, these poems bridge the gap between the struggles and victories women continue to forge through every decade since. This collection also crosses into the construction of my own story and my efforts to balance my dreams with professional survival and motherhood.
Bridging The Gap is still a work in progress with plans to add more interactive opportunities for readers to engage and learn more through stem and poetic activies.
My Ghost Still Carries a Rooster in “Bridging The Gap Poems & Ethos for Emily Warren Roebling by Marissa Forbes Sound by Kamauu
PUBLICATIONS
MANAGING EDITOR
Twenty Bellows seeks to showcase the work of the next generation of artisans - those who work in word and verse with the same intensity of a blacksmith and their hammer. Emphasizing the work of emerging and unpublished writers and poets, 20B seeks to amplify their voices in print and on stage.
We are fiercely inclusive, independently managed, and dedicated to the creation of something incredible.
As Managing Editor, I seek to create community by organizing events that showcase seasoned and emerging writers from Colorado and Wyoming. My work is rooted in amplifying marginalized voices through opportunities to share their stories and connect with each other.
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BIOGRAPAPHY
Marissa Forbes is a writer, development coordinator, and mother. She graduated from Pratt Institute in 2008 and between 2008-2011, wrote & directed three one-act philosophical comedies for Off-Broadway, published several poems & short stories in online and print literary journals, and co-founded Brooklyn REPUBLIC--an art and charity collective that still thrives. Then she became a mother.
After nearly a decade focusing solely on motherhood, teaching art & preschool, and working in various organizations in the nonprofit sector, she began writing again in 2020.
Marissa has since published over 20 pieces
internationally, awarded an Author Fellowship from Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, was the 2024 writer in resident for both Center for Colorado Women's History and Tiny Spoon, and is the 2025-2026 Poet Laureate for 40 West Arts District in Lakewood Colorado. She is the Managing Editor for Twenty Bellows Literary Magazine and a Teacher for the Community Literature Intiative.
Her chapbook Surviving Peter Pan through Beyond The Veil Press and Brief & Bleeding Margins through World Stage Press where published in 2023. Marissa lives in Denver Colorado with her two kids, cat, and dog. She continues to curate her life as she sees fit.