Jennifer Lisa Vest :: Literary Biography

Jennifer Lisa Vest is a Mixedblood gay poet born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She has had her poetry published in three journals, The Fire This Time, Ache (pronounced ah-shay), and Tongues and in four anthologies including Testimonies,, Fast Talk, High Volume, Out of Many, One, and Face America. She has performed in poetry readings and mixed media events throughout the Bay Area, Washington DC, New York, Connecticut, Boston, and Atlanta since the early 90s and was a member of the 1997 San Francisco Slam Team which competed in the Nationals. Her first book of poetry, Names, was published by Indigenous Speak in Berkeley, CA in 1997. In 1998, she toured the east coast promoting Names. Between 1999 and 2004, Jennifer participated in readings at a number of anti-war events in Oakland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle. In 2005 and 2006, she laid down tracks for her first three cds and produced her first two cds, Camping at a Distance and Ancestor Count.

Literary

Published Poems

"Rambo Woman" The Fire This Time. Washington , D.C. 1990.

"That Mulatto Talk" And "On Monogamy" (Essay) Ache : A Journal

For Lesbians Of African Descent, Vol. 5, No. 2 (May/June 1993)

"Survivor's Poem #1," "Rambo Woman," "From The Beginning," "Return From Jail," And "Hair" Fast Talk, Full Volume: An Anthology Of African American Poetry. Edited By Alan Spears. Cabin John: Gut Punch Press, 1993.

"White Friends" And "Untitled (Tossing) Testimony: Young African Americans On Self-Discovery And Black Identity. Edited By Natasha Tarplay. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.

"Maybe," Out Of Many, One: Second Annual Students Of Mixed

Heritage Journal (Spring 1995) Santa Cruz: University Of California, Santa Cruz,1995

"In This, The Fifth World," Poetry For The People: Face America (1996) Berkeley, CA.

"For My Neighbors" Tongues, Vol. 4 (2004)

Poetry Books

Names Berkeley: Indigenous Speak, 1997; second Edition Published By Monkey Productions, San Francisco, CA 2002.

Unpublished Manuscripts

Ancestor Count (2003)

Some Will Say (2003)

She is currently seeking publishers for Ancestor Count and Some Will Say.