Jen DeGregorio is a rising star in the contemporary literary landscape. Among her many artistic gifts is an uncanny ability to invoke the personal as a point of entry to the universal. The speakers of her poems–in their dailiness, their encounters with popular culture, and their movement thorough sociohistorical upheaval–raise essential questions about the nature of the self: What is the relationship between the individual and their community? Is the consciousness an inherently social endeavor, even in our most solitary moments? As DeGregorio teases out possible answers to these questions, she dazzles with her incredible command of imagery, her unique approach to writerly craft, and her undeniable artistry and intelligence.
Jen DeGregorio’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The American Poetry Review, Literary Hub, Paterson Literary Review, Poets & Writers Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Third Coast, Tupelo Quarterly, and many other publications. Her work has received support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference; the Kettle Pond Writers’ Conference; Binghamton University (SUNY), where she received a PhD in English; and Hunter College (CUNY), where she received an MFA in creative writing. She currently works as the associate director of creative writing at Binghamton, where she also teaches undergraduate creative writing as a lecturer. A former senior editor of Poets & Writers, she began her writing career as a newspaper reporter and holds a BA in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park.