Publications and Press
​"The House in Jerusalem," "Imagine the Light Shining Everything False," "Jerusalem Candy," "Jerusalem Toys, May 1948," and "Sipping Silence," The Rumpus (forthcoming)
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"Giving Myself a B+ for Disaster Management" and "Mystery is the son who sneaks in my bed at 3 am," Rhino (forthcoming)
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"The Night of her Funeral," Poetry Daily, 2025.
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​"Once I thought I could save people," AGNI online, 2025.
"On accidentally getting pregnant at age 45 in America in 2024," Lunch Ticket, 2024.
"My Uncle Offers Me a Cow," Puerto del Sol, 2024.​
​"On accidentally getting pregnant at age 45 in America in 2024," second place in Calyx Press 24th Annual Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize, 2024.​​​
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"Page 271 from the Glossary of Armenian Terms," The Cortland Review, Issue 93
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"The Sand of the Syrian Desert Apologizes to the Armenians after the Genocide" and "Waiting," Portland Review
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"Self-Portrait as Second Version," "The Night of her Funeral," and "How to Teach Atom Egoyan's Ararat to Twelfth Graders," Mizna, 2024
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"Thinking About My Father’s Erector Set,” co-winner of New Ohio Review's 2024 Poetry Contest (judged by Naomi Shihab Nye)
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"Why My Father Insisted on Us Arriving Early at Ben Gurion Airport," Atlanta Review, 2024
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"Journal for Pomegranates," AGNI, 2024
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Awarded funding through Scholastic Art and Writing Awards to attend Kenyon Review's Summer Online Writers Workshop for Teachers, 2024
"Prayer on a Bicycle," Prairie Schooner, 2023
"Self Portrait with Diana Al-Hadid’s 'The Candle Clock in the Citadel,'" 2023 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize Semifinalist, February 2023
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"Bay Area Authors Share Rituals that help close out the holiday season" by Vanessa Hua, San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, December 29, 2022
"Inheritance," KALW's Bay Poets, August, 22, 2022
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"The Page Turner" Los Gatos Library Podcast Discussion of Ada Limon's The Carrying with Librarian Breanna Homrighausen, April 5, 2022
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"Why My Father Insisted on Us Arriving Early at Ben Gurion Airport," 2021 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize Semifinalist, March 2022
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The Hive Poetry Collective - interviewed by poets Farnaz Fatemi and Erin Redfern, KSQD 90.7, July 2, 2021
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"New Los Gatos poet laureate says role is 'made for me'" by Anne Gelhaus, The Mercury News, April 17, 2021.
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"Monroe, Washington,” republished in Why To These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers, Spring 2021
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"When a Turk is in a hostel kitchen," Bellevue Literary Review, 2017
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“After the Burn,” Quiddity, 2017
“Armenian Hair,” “Armenian Restaurant in Arkansas,” and “Being Armenian,” Cream City Review, Summer 2017
“Monroe, Washington,” Best New Poets 2016
“Armenian Wedding,” Mid-American Review, 2016
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“Evening in Bethlehem,” So to Speak, Fall 2015
“If I hadn’t broken my hip” and “There is something about a beautiful woman on crutches,” The Fourth River, Spring 2015
“The Next Generation,” Smartish Pace, 2015
“Visiting the Moon,” Natural Bridge, Fall 2014
“Milk,” The Squaw Valley Review, 2014
“A House on the Seam,” republished in Not Somewhere Else But Here (Sundress Publications, 2014)
“Post-Op,” Catamaran Literary Reader, Winter 2014
“Ear,” Eleven Eleven, Fall 2014
“Patience,” Redactions, Summer 2014
“Picasso’s Parts,” Southwest Review, 2014
“Homeland,” Barrow Street, Winter 2013/14.
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“Manti,” Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God, Fall 2012.
“Spilling Forth,” The Squaw Valley Review, 2012.
“A House on the Seam,” Spillway, Fall 2011.
Bio
Photo by Chris Hardy
Jen Siraganian is an Armenian-American writer, educator, and former Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California. Author of the chapbook “Fracture” (Deconstructed Artichoke Press), she has been profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose’s The Mercury News. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Barrow Street, Best New Poets, Cortland Review, Mid-American Review, NPR’s KALW, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Smartish Pace, and other journals and anthologies. Awarded the 2024 New Ohio Review Poetry Prize, she has been nominated for a Ruth Lilly Fellowship and a Pushcart Prize and received funding from the Community of Writers, Lucas Artists Residency Program, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, and Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She earned a BA with Honors in creative writing, British and American Literature, and gender studies at Brown University and an MFA in poetry at University of Arkansas. A former managing director of Litquake: San Francisco’s Literary Festival, she has taught literature and creative writing in schools and community settings for twenty years.
Events
March 23, 2025 - Poets@Play, Poetry Center San Jose
March 17, 2025 - Lockdown Chronicles, Zoom
October 26, 2024 - The O.G.'s of Litquake, Lit Crawl, San Francisco, CA
July - August 2024 - Lucas Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA
July 12, 2024 - Featured reader at Satori Artist Space, Santa Cruz, CA
June 23, 2024 - Poetry Exchange, Zoom
June 13, 2024 - Poets' Circle, Watsonville Public Library, Watsonville, CA
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May 19, 2024 - Poetry & Music in the Parks, Santa Cruz, CA
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May 5, 2024 - Montalvo Lucas Artists Program 20th Anniversary, Saratoga, CA
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December 1, 2023, Los Gatos Annual Winter Celebration, Los Gatos, CA
September 6, 2023, Alameda Island Poets, Zoom
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June 2, 2023 - Summer and Similes with Four Bay Area Poets, Los Gatos, CA
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May 18, 2023 - Black Out Poetry Workshop for Adults, Los Gatos Library
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April 27, 2023 - Poetry Invitational 2023 hosted by Santa Clara Poet Laureate Tshaka Campbell, San Jose Museum of Art
April 21, 2023 - Poet Laureate Presentation, Los Gatos High School
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April 17, 2023- Los Gatos Poetry Contest Winners Reading, Los Gatos Library, Los Gatos, CA
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April 4, 2023 - Poet Laureate Reading at Los Gatos Town Council Meeting, Los Gatos, CA
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March 29, 2023 - Litquake's Epicenter: Taleen Voskuni with Jen Siraganian, Hotel Emblem, San Francisco
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March 16, 2023 - Teen Poetry Workshop, Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, CA
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January 27, 2023 - Guest Judge at Poetry Out Loud, Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, CA
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November 28, 2022 - Black Out Poetry for Teens Workshop, Los Gatos Library, Los Gatos, CA
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October 27, 2022 - Los Gatos Library Poetry Book Club - discussion of Don Mee Choi's DMZ Colony, Los Gatos Library, Los Gatos, CA
October 22, 2022 - Litquake's Lit Crawl, Poets Crawleate: Bay Area Poet Laureates Represent!, The Chapel, San Francisco
October 6, 2022 - The International Armenian Literary Alliance Emerging Writers Showcase, Zoom
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September 18, 2022 - Poetry Reading with Farnaz Fatemi, Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland
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July 16, 2022 - A Long Hidden History: Racism Workshop and Readings from Combined Destinies, Drums in the Park, Town Plaza Park, Los Gatos, CA
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July 7, 2022 - Kids Poetry Workshop, Pageant Park, Los Gatos, CA
June 27, 2022 - Adult and Teen Poetry Workshop, Los Gatos Library, Los Gatos, CA
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May 19, 2022 - Closing Awards Ceremony: ArtNow 2022 Brave New Worlds, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA
April 28, 2022 - Judge and Host of Los Gatos Poetry Contest Winners Reading, Los Gatos, CA
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April 28, 2022 - Poet Laureate Presentation at Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, CA
April 24, 2022 - Poet Laureates Reading, Legacy of Poetry: Can Poetry Save the Planet, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
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April 6, 2022 - Poetry at the Park StoryWalk and Haiku Workshop, Oak Meadow Park, Los Gatos, CA
April 5, 2022 - Poet Laureate Reading at Los Gatos Town Council Meeting, Zoom
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January 27, 2022 - Guest Judge at Poetry Out Loud, Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, CA
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January 20, 2022 - Winter Words Poetry Reading: Four Bay Area Poets, Zoom
November 14, 2021 - United Against Hate Walk, Los Gatos, CA
October 22, 2021 - Leonard, My Muse: Drop-in Writing Class with Jen Siraganian, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, Zoom
September 30, 2021 - Los Gatos Library Poetry Book Club - discussion of Jericho Brown's The Tradition, Zoom
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July 15, 2021 - Poetry Writing Workshop, Los Gatos, CA
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May 25, 2021 - California Poetry in Bloom, Zoom
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May 16, 2021 - Poetry Exchange Featuring Los Gatos Poet Laureate Jen Siraganian, Zoom
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May 8, 2021 - NUMU Closing Awards Ceremony for ArtNow 2021, Zoom
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April 28, 2021 - Presentation at Los Gatos High School, Zoom
April 25, 2021 - Los Gatos DEI “Learn, Listen, Change, Grow” Campaign Launch
Town Plaza, Los Gatos, CA
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April 6, 2021 - Poet Laureate Induction and Reading at the Los Gatos Town Council Meeting, Zoom
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October 19, 2019 - Litquake’s Lit Crawl, “It Was Twenty Years Ago Today,” San Francisco, CA
November 15, 2018 - Poetry Center San Jose Third Thursday Reading @ Willow Glen Library, San Jose, CA
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June 10, 2018 - Poetry Reading at The Contemporary Jewish Museum Tenth Anniversary Community Free Day, San Francisco, CA
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October 13, 2017 - Litquake, “Exalted Verse,” Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, CA
January 19, 2017 - “Gen to Gen: Poet to Poet” From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art, The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA
Contact Me
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