Publications

Books & Chapbooks

  • Bayou Sonata (Poetry – Chapbook), NOLA DNA, Spring 2023. Funded by a grant from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Limited Run – email patricia.nicole.ummel@gmail.com if you’d like a copy!
  • Hush (Poetry – Chapbook), Belle Point Press, Fall 2022.  Order Here!

Nonfiction

  • “Chronic,” an excerpt from good body, Blue Earth Review, Winter 2022.
    *Honorable Mention for the 2022 Mockbee Prize at the University of New Orleans, judged by Patty Dann, who wrote, “In unflinching prose, [Nikki] deftly invites us into a painful world and insists the reader not look away. This is an essay not only about anguish but also about survival and endurance.”
    *Runner Up for Blue Earth Review‘s 2022 Flash Nonfiction Contest
    *Finalist for Harbour Review’s 2022 Washburn Prize
  • “My Life in 25 Records,” The Daily Drunk Magazine, Kirsten and Friends Ultimate Summer Playlist Zine, Summer 2022.
    *Nominated for Best of the Net, CNF.

Fiction

  • “O Guillotine!,” Quagmire Magazine, online, Summer 2023.
    *Runner Up in Quagmire Magazine’s 2022 prose contest.
  • “A Wake for One,” The Painted Bride Quarterly, Issue 102, Fall 2022.
  • “Stage Five,” After Happy Hour Review, Contest Issue 1, Spring 2022.
    *Winner of After Happy Hour Review’s 2021 prose contest.

Poetry

  • “Sarasota, 2010,” In the Tempered Dark: Contemporary Poets Transcending Elegy, edited by Lisa Fay Coutley and forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press, Spring 2024.
  • “Self-Portrait of Sappho” and “Where the Earth Runs Red,” Queer Life, Queer Love: The Second Anthology, Summer 2023.
  • “Star Carr, the Other Side of the Antler,” Beaver Magazine, Bodies: A Preservation of Land & Self, forthcoming, Summer 2023.
  • “Grand Bay, Mississippi,” “Still Here,” and “Dream Sequence,” Trampoline Magazine, Summer 2023.
  • “Former Champion of the Uneven Bars,” New Orleans Poetry Project, forthcoming, Summer 2023.
  • “On the Ferry to Algiers,” Sonnet Anthology, Belle Point Press, Summer 2023.
  • “Altar” and “After the Flood,” Of Rush and Glass Queer Anthology, forthcoming.
  • “1993 Tableau sans Lithium,” Arkana, forthcoming.
  • “Airplane Hemmorhage,” Rogue Agent, forthcoming.
  • “Run Bitch Run,” Dream Pop Press, forthcoming.
  • “Indiana Summer,” “Fireflies for the first time,” and “Dream Sequence,” North Dakota Quarterly, forthcoming.
  • “On the Six-Month Anniversary of My Ex’s Death, I Meet His Baby Mama,” “To the Brazilian Kids Who Zoom Bombed My First Book Launch,” “First Gay Crush (Ode to Alex Kelly from The O.C.),” and “Portrait of St. Paul with Martini Olives,” Epiphany Magazine, forthcoming.
  • “April,” Peatsmoke Journal, forthcoming. Finalist for the 2022 Peatsmoke Poetry Summer Contest, judged by Erin Elizabeth Smith.
  • “What I Remember of Dauphine St.,” Daydreamer Anthology, forthcoming from Urban Ivy Books.
  • “After the Flood,” Zine Project: A Queer/Trans Guide to Storms, forthcoming from Imagine Water Works.
  • “hurricane litany,” “Djupavik,” and “Hemphill, Kentucky,” Still: The Journal, Spring 2023.
  • “Ophelia’s Curse: A Golden Shovel,” Crab Creek Review, Spring 2023. Finalist for the 2022 Crab Creek Review Poetry Prize, judged by C. Dale Young.
  • “Self-Portrait with Piano,” The Pinch Journal, Issue 42.2, Spring 2023. Finalist for The Pinch Literary Awards, judged by Phillip B. Williams.
  • “Womanpower Unlimited (Jackson, 1961),” Rise Up Review, Winter 2022.
  • “When he says we’re platonic,” The Globe Review, Winter 2022.
  • “BREATHING PANELS,” Barrow Street Journal, Winter 2022. 
  • “Walking My Niece Home,” Kelsay Books, Winter 2022.
    *Second Place, Women’s Poetry Contest 2022
  • “When My Water Broke, I Reached Down and Tasted Your Coming,” and “After Taking My First Dose of Lexapro,” Susurrus, Issue 5, Winter 2022.
  • “Fragments from Quarantine” and “An Offering,” Channel Magazine, Fall 2022.
  • “Room 122, the Memory Ward at St. Sebastian,” Love/Loss Anthology, Vita Brevis Press, Fall 2022.
  • “Swamp Elegy,” Surging Tide Magazine, Fall 2022.
    *Finalist for Surging Tide Magazine’s 2022 Summer Poetry Contest, judged by I.S. Jones.
  • “A Lover of Starlight,” The Broken City, Fall 2022.
  • “All the Trees of the Field Clapped Their Hands,” Painted Bride Quarterly, Issue 101, Fall 2022. 
  • “Self-Portrait with My Sister’s Will,” “A Mother on the Eve of Her Child’s 15th Birthday,” and “Leave Taking: A Bop,” Black Fox Literary Magazine, Issue 23, Summer 2022.
  • “Fantasy of Walking My Niece Home,” Academy of American Poets, online, Fall 2022. Winner of the 2022 Andrea Saunders Gereighty Prize and an Academy of American Poets Award, judged by Mackie Blanton.
  • “Double Mastectomy,” Naugatuck River Review, Issue 28, Summer 2022.
  • “Eleven,” Rise Up Review, online, Summer 2022.
  • “Former Champion of the Uneven Bars,” Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 63.4, Summer 2022.
  • “And He Takes and He Takes and He Takes,” Ellipsis, Vol. 47, Summer 2022. Honorable Mention for the 2022 Vassar Miller Poetry Award, judged by Grace Bauer.
  • “Fantasy of Walking My Niece Home,” Ellipsis, Vol. 47, Summer 2022. Winner of the 2022 Andrea Saunders Gereighty Prize and an Academy of American Poets Award, judged by Mackie Blanton.
  • “Fragments on My Mania,” and “Photo of Our Parents, Circa 1992,” Ellipsis, Vol. 47, Summer 2022.
  • “And He Takes and He Takes and He Takes,” Helix Magazine, online, Spring 2022. Winner of the Loraine McGrath Poetry Prize, judged by Benjamin S. Grossberg.
  • “Fragments on My Mania,” After Happy Hour Review, Spring 2022. Honorable Mention in After Happy Hour Review’s 2021 poetry contest.
  • “The Fig Tree on Dauphine St. Speaks” and “The Memory Ward at St. Sebastian,” The Peauxdunque Review, Issue 6, Spring 2022. Honorable Mentions in the 2021 Words & Music Writing Competition, judged by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Additionally, my essay, “I Remember Everything,” and short story “O Guillotine!,” earned Honorable Mentions in the 2021 Words & Music Writing Competition, judged by Elizabeth Miki Brina and Ravi Howard.
  • “Eleven,” “Womanpower Unlimited,” and “Anniston Burning,” The Peauxdunque Review, Issue 5, Fall 2021. Honorable Mentions in the 2020 Words & Music Writing Competition, judged by Beth Ann Fennelly.  “Eleven” was nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize in poetry.
  • “Walking My Nephew Home,” Sky Island Journal, Issue 18, Fall 2021.
  • “Sarasota, 2010,” Midwest Quarterly, Vol. 63.1, Fall 2021.
  • “Saturday Morning on St. Claude Ave,” French Quarter Journal, online, Summer 2021. Winner of the 2021 Stanzas Poetry contest, judged by Skye Jackson.
  • “Where Else Does My Mother Go When She Dream Walks?,” Ellipsis, Vol. 46, Summer 2021. Honorable Mention for the 2021 Vassar Miller Poetry Award, judged by John Warner Smith.
  • “Meeting Aunt Nebbi for the First Time,” Ellipsis, Vol. 46, Summer 2021. Winner of the 2020 Vassar Miller Poetry Award, judged by Brad Richard.
  • “Altar,” Ellipsis, Vol. 46, Summer 2021. Winner of the 2020 Andrea Saunders Gereighty Prize and an Academy of American Poets Award, judged by Emily Schulten.
  • “The Things We Know,” Tilted House Review, Issue 3, Spring 2021. 
  • “Where Else Does My Mother Go When She Dream Walks?,” Sky Island Journal, Issue 16, Spring 2021.
  • “Altar,” The Academy of American Poets, online, Summer 2020. Winner of the 2020 Andrea Saunders Gereighty Prize and an Academy of American Poets Award, judged by Emily Schulten.
  • “Selina, 1920,” Rise Up Review, online, Summer 2020.
  • “Alchemy,” Hobart Pulp, online, Summer 2020.

Reviews and Interviews