WPSR’s Poet-in-Residence

Introducing WPSR’s New Poet-in-Residence: Jen Soriano

Few people know that a long-standing WPSR tradition is to host a Poet-in-Residence, a local artist who shares their work with the WPSR community at monthly board meetings and larger community events to provide opportunities for reflection and inspiration. They also remind us - as concerned community members who use our voices as health advocates -- that the power of the written and spoken word can come in many different forms.

WPSR is honored to introduce our newest Poet in Residence, Filipinx-American lyric essayist and performer and author Jen Soriano (she/they). Using personal stories as a window into big ideas, Soriano dissects destructive systems while asking readers to question our individual roles in maintaining them and inviting us to imagine transformative change. Jen is the author of Making the Tongue Dry, a chapbook of lyric essays and prose poems in which she tackles chronic pain, climate change, toxic masculinity and the atomic bomb, and Multiplicity From the Margins, which explores the potential of intersectional form to disrupt oppressive narratives and expand narrow worldviews. Jen's essay collection on historical trauma and the neuroscience of healing is forthcoming from HarperCollins/Amistad in 2023.

Jen has been the recipient of numerous literary prizes and fellowships including from Seattle’s Hugo House. She holds a BA in History and Science from Harvard and an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. Jen lives in Seattle with her husband and son, where she works as a communications strategist for social justice organizations. For more about Jen and her work, visit www.jensoriano.net. 

Please join us in welcoming Jen to WPSR, and we invite you to share in WPSR’s commitment to support local writers working at the intersection of art and social justice by becoming a member or making a donation today.