Jasminne Mendez will present a selection of her work and answer questions from the audience. The evening is hosted by the Creative Writing Minor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Jasminne Mendez is a Dominican-American poet, educator, translator, playwright and award winning author of several books for children and adults. She has had poetry and essays published in numerous journals and anthologies and she is the author of two multi-genre collections Island of Dreams (Floricanto Press, 2013) which won an International Latino Book Award, and Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e: Personal Essays and Poetry (Arte Publico Press, 2018). Her debut poetry collection City Without Altar was a finalist for the Noemi Press poetry prize and was released in August 2022 (Noemi Press) and her debut middle grade novel in verse Aniana del Mar Jumps In (Dial) is forthcoming in 2023. Her debut picture book Josefina’s Habichuelas (Arte Publico Press, 2021) was the Writer’s League of Texas Children’s Book Discovery Prize Winner She has translated the work of NYT Best Selling authors Amanda Gorman and Calribel Ortega and the Houston Grand Opera. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University and a University of Houston alumni. She is the Program Director for the literary arts non-profit Tintero Projects and teaches creative writing for Goddard College. She lives and works in Houston, TX.