Jessica Abughattas grew up in Southern California. She is the author of Strip (University of Arkansas Press, 2020), which was selected by Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara for the 2020 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize.
A graduate of Antioch University’s MFA program in Los Angeles, she has been awarded a Kundiman fellowship.
Her short poetry film “Dinner Party” premiered at Mizna Twin Cities Film Festival in 2021, was a finalist for Palette Poetry’s Brush and Lyre Prize, and appeared at RAWI Fest.
From 2020 to 2022, she was the Poet Laureate of Altadena, California and editor of Altadena Poetry Review.
She has taught poetry workshops for Kundiman, Sevilla Writers House, and Northeastern University’s Writing Center. She has read her work at various venues and festivals virtually and throughout Los Angeles.
She was previously editor-in-chief at Lunch Ticket, poetry editor at Lunch Ticket, associate editor at Palette Poetry, and a reader at Frontier. She has been an intern, reader, and manuscript editor at Write Bloody Publishing at various times since 2010.
She’s writing a second poetry collection in LA.