JP HOward BIo

JP Howard is a is a poet, educator, literary activist, curator, emerging essayist and community builder. JP was the Spring 2023 Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*), Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems (Harlequin Creature) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians--We Are the Revolution! JP was a featured author in Lambda Literary’s LGBTQ Writers in Schools Program, was a 2023 Learn with Lambda Literary Workshop Facilitator and is featured in the Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. JP has received fellowships and grants from Cave Canem, VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation), Lambda Literary Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon. JP’s poetry is widely anthologized and her poetry and/or essays have been featured in The New York Times, The Slowdown  Podcast, The Academy of American Poets, Apogee Journal, Hyperallergic, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, and Muzzle Magazine, Raising Mothers, Adrienne: A Poetry Journal of Queer Women, Issue 1 (Sibling Rivalry Press), The Best American Poetry Blog, Mom Egg Review, Talking Writing, Connotation Press and more. JP is currently a general Poetry Editor for Women's Studies Quarterly and Editor-At-Large of Mom Egg Review VOX online. JP’s essay “Centering Black Queer Womyn: Today All the Parts of Me Come Along“ is featured in the anthology Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021). JP has a new essay forthcoming from the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Series to be distributed by University of Chicago Press (2024).

JP was a Pushcart Prize Nominee and was a  finalist for Split This Rock's 2017 Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism. JP was selected as a Judith Markowtiz Emerging Writers Award Winner from Lambda Literary Foundation; the same year she was a Lammy finalist for her debut poetry collection. 

JP curates and nurtures Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon (WWBPS), a forum offering all writers, but especially women, at all levels, a monthly venue to come together in a positive and supportive space. The Salon has been featured in Literary Hub, Poets & Writers Magazine and on CUNY-TV's cable tv program Study with the Best!" She is the recipient of Brooklyn Arts Council Grants on behalf of the Salon. The Salon celebrates a diverse array of women poets and includes a large LGBTQ POC membership.  JP is an alum of the VONA/Voices Writers Workshop, as well as a Lambda Literary Foundation Emerging LGBT Voices Fellow. JP was a Cave Canem Fellow-in-Residence at The Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA) and completed a residency at Soul Mountain Retreat. She was a finalist in The Feminist Wire’s 1st Poetry Contest and in the poetry category for the Lesbian Writer's Fund of Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Her poetry has been featured in Emotive Fruition, a lively performance series in NYC, where actors bring to life new page poetry for the stage. Her poetry is widely anthologized and some of the many anthologies which have published her poetry include Reading Queer: Poetry In A Time of Chaos, Nepantla: A Journal for Queer Poets of Color, Brooklyn Poets Anthology, Happy Hours--Our Lives in the Gay Bars, Stand Our Ground: Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander, amongst others.