Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: janan alexandra
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
November 2025 Poet: janan alexandra
On the Last Day
we grate lemon zest into yolks cracked cold from the fridge, dip our fingers in cake flour & fold the yielding yellow dough. when it's time to say bismillah & heave her suitcase into the trunk, taking the terminally gray road to the airport, we've filled tins with enough treats to last a week, two if i ration. still, we have no time at the gate, cars crowding the curb, security swatting at us & barking into their megaphones. inside my throat the fine needles of an artichoke heart start to open. i miss her even as we face each other, knowing what i know & cannot yet know, coming home motherless to a house that is lonely for her jasmine & rose, one strand of her hair curled upon my pillow.
Source
come from, BOA Editions, 2025. Credit line: “On the Last Day” from come from by janan alexandra (BOA Editions, 2025).
Poet Bio
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. She is currently a 2025 Djanikian Scholar in Poetry.
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 teaches at Indiana University, edits poetry at The Rumpus, and plays fiddle in the Sweet May Dews. She also helps curate MONDAYS ARE FREE, a Substack collaboration by BFF poets Ross Gay and Pat Rosal.