come from: janan alexandra
Join us for an evening of poetry and conversation celebrating janan alexandra’s debut poetry collection come from (BOA Editions).
janan will be speaking in conversation with Jennifer (JP) Perrine, author of five books of poetry including the recently published Beautiful Outlaw (Winner of the Kelsey Street Press QTBIPOC Book Prize).
This event is free to attend and open to the public.
janan alexandra will also be teaching a two-day workshop from September 27-28: ‘To Have and Keep a Beautiful Mind: A Multi-Genre Workshop.’ Spots are still available! Learn more about the class and sign up here. We also have access spots available for the class, which you can apply for here.Â
“come from arrives, it seems to me, in the footsteps of the cats, of the great Etel Adnan, of the worn & sun-hot stone. Wisdom. Vision. What a dream to find this sound, to reach & reach again for janan alexandra’s billiant, steadfast attention—each phrase an altar of life, a route to past-language. Question, exclamation, sorrow, memory. I am more alive to read this poet’s every light & dark.”
— Aracelis Girmay
“If I were lucky enough to introduce you to janan alexandra’s marvelous first book, come from, by which I really mean if I were to tell you about it what I love, by which I mean begin to tell you about it what I love, I might start with feeling, how the poems themselves feel yes—recklessly, holleringly, precisely—but also how much in the poems there is to feel, to touch [ . . .] I love these poems how they make welcome.”
— Ross Gay
janan alexandra
janan alexandra is the author of the poetry collection come from (BOA Editions). The recipient of support from the Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright program, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, janan is a 2025 Djanikian Scholar in Poetry and won the 2023 Adrienne Rich Award for her poem, “On Form & Matter.” Since 2015, janan has taught creative writing in schools, libraries, youth centers, zoom rooms, and carceral spaces. She currently teaches at Indiana University and at the Monroe County Correctional Center, edits poetry at The Rumpus, and helps curate MONDAYS ARE FREE, a Substack collaboration between BFF poets Ross Gay and Pat Rosal.
Jennifer Perrine
Pronouns: any/all
Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the author of five award-winning books of poetry: Beautiful Outlaw, Again, The Body Is No Machine, In the Human Zoo, and No Confession, No Mass. Their other recent work appears in Best Small Fictions, A Mouth Holds Many Things: A De-Canon Hybrid Lit Collection, and Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry. A two-time winner of Arts and Culture Diversity and Inclusion Awards from the Asian American Journalists Association, Perrine lives in Portland, Oregon, where they cohost the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, perform stand-up comedy, and work as the equity and racial justice program manager for Metro Parks and Nature.
