Jen Yáñez-Alaniz

a Texas-based cultural activist —educator — poet

Jen Yáñez-Alaniz (She/her) is a Chicana Mestiza activist, educator, and poet. She is a PhD Fellow in Culture, Literacy, and Language in the Department of Bilingual Bicultural Studies at the University of Texas, San Antonio. Her focused studies center on Translanguaging Poetics as Third Space. As co- founder of Welcome: A Poetry Declaration, she brings awareness through equity-driven cultural conversations centered on language justice, the preservation of language, and language literacy. Her work, Matrilineal Poetics: Toward an Understanding of Corporeality and Identity is featured in Latinas in Hollywood Herstories. A Pushcart nominee, her latest and forthcoming publications are included in The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, South Dakota Review, Rogue Agent Journal, Mom Egg Review, West Trestle Review, Cutthroat: Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century Anthology, Boundless Anthology, and more. She is currently at work on an extensive critical biography of Carmen Tafolla, and Jen’s forthcoming chapbook, “Surrogate Eater” is due out late Spring 2023. Pre-orders are now open.

Reach her at jen.communitylearns@gmail.com