As part of The Pixel Project’s Read For Pixels campaign, we interview authors and poets from genres as diverse as Science Fiction and Fantasy to Romance to Horror about why they support the movement to end violence against women and girls.
For Domestic Violence Awareness Month 2025, we present an interview with Read For Pixels poet Stephanie M. Wytovich who contributed her original poem What the Floorboards Know To Be True to our 1st charity poetry collection, UNDER HER EYE.
Stephanie (she/her) is an American poet, novelist, and essayist. She is a recipient of the Bram Stoker Award, the Elizabeth Matchett Stover Memorial Award, the 2021 Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant, and the Rocky Wood Memorial Scholarship for non-fiction writing. Learn more about Stephanie via https://www.stephaniemwytovich.com/ and follow her on Twitter and Instagram. You can also sign up for her newsletter at https://stephaniemwytovich.substack.com/.
Inspired to support The Pixel Project’s anti-violence against women work? Make a donation to us today OR buy our 1st poetry collection, UNDER HER EYE, that is published in partnership with Black Spot Books. All donations and net proceeds from book sales go towards supporting our campaigns, programmes, and initiatives.
1. Why is ending violence against women important to you and why did you decide to support The Pixel Project by contributing your poem What the Floorboards Know To Be True to UNDER HER EYE which is The Pixel Project’s first charity poetry collection published in partnership with Black Spot Books?
When I first heard about this project, I jumped at the opportunity to be included. My work has always had a feminist bent to it and I seek to exorcise as much as educate with my writing. That said, I’ve worked in higher education for over a decade now, and this poem became a homage to the stories women have shared with me as much as a therapeutic exercise based on events in my own life and the lives and stories of my ancestors. Through sharing, we find community, and through community, we start to heal, and to be a part of that feels wonderfully empowering.
2. What do you think poets can do to help with the cultural change needed to stop violence against women and girls?
The more we hold space for conversations about these topics, the less taboo they become. I think so much of our activism as poets includes creating opportunities through our work that allow people to learn, share, and start having discourse around and about these issues whether that’s from a political viewpoint, a social one, or perhaps something more individual.
3. Any final thoughts about why everyone should support stopping violence against women?
Everyone deserves happiness and peace and kindness. We never know what battle someone is fighting at first glance, but we do know that there are certain groups fighting for basic human rights and survival more than others right now. It’s important to educate ourselves, raise awareness, share resources, and use our voices when we can to ensure safety and spread messages of love and community as much as possible.
Even if you can’t scream, a whisper goes a long way, and there are no small acts of activism. Everything counts. And everyone matters.
Listen to Stephanie discussing poetry, feminism, and violence against women here: