Janan Alexandra

janan alexandra is the author of the poetry collection COME FROM (BOA Editions). Her poem On Form & Matter won the 2023 Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, judged by Marie Howe, and her poem Open Letter To A Politician was recently featured in Lit Hub’s 50 Contemporary Poets on the Best Poems they Read in 2024.  

As the daughter of a Lebanese mother and Beirut-born American father, janan’s life has been peripatetic, with roots scattered in Cyprus, Lebanon, Pakistan, England, France, and many corners of North America. She was awarded a 2021-2022 Creative Research Fulbright Fellowship and has also received support from the Vermont Studio Center, the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Stadler Center for Poetry & Literary Arts. 

Since 2015, janan has taught poetry and creative writing in schools, libraries, youth arts centers, zoom rooms, and carceral spaces. Along with language work, janan has facilitated restorative movement classes; nannied; welded ice cream scoops; tied oyster nets; tended land and animals; built picnic tables; baked bread; painted houses; and busked to make a living. She currently teaches at Indiana University, edits poetry at The Rumpus, and plays fiddle in the Sweet May Dews. With Essence London she curates Mondays Are Free, a Substack collaboration by BFF poets Ross Gay and Pat Rosal.