Anis Mojgani

Artist, author, and performer Anis Mojgani is the current Poet Laureate of Oregon. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, and multiple TEDx Speaker, Anis has shared work across the globe as a professional poet for the past 16 years.

A multidisciplinary artist born to a Black American woman and an Iranian man and raised in New Orleans, Anis attended school at the Savannah College of Art and Design, which he holds a BFA in Sequential Art from. After moving to Portland Oregon, he and a band of fellow SCAD graduates opened and ran downtown art gallery and collective, Couch, for two years. Anis has been awarded artist residencies from Caldera Arts, The Vermont Studio Center, The Sou’wester, AIR Serenbe, and The Bloedel Nature Reserve, as well as serving as both an artist- and writer-in residence in the KSMoCA and Literary Arts Writers-In-The-Schools programs. His work has been commissioned by the Getty Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Portland Timbers, and others.

Known for creating work that centers on translating the specific to the universal, Anis uses his own experiences pushed through magical realism to hopefully open his audiences to the power of their own imaginations and self-worth. His work has appeared on HBO, NPR, and as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series, and in the NY Times, Buzzfeed, Rattle, Forklift Ohio, Paper Darts,Thrush, Bat City Review, and Illustoria.

Anis is the author of five books of poetry, all published by Write Bloody Publishing: Songs From Under the River, The Feather Room, Over the Anvil We Stretch, The Pocketknife Bible, and his latest, In the Pockets of Small Gods; his first book for children is forthcoming from Chronicle Books. 2021 saw the premier of Sanctuaries, the opera about gentrification in Portland for which he wrote the libretto for; and Spring of 2022 saw the creation of a telephone line in which people could call and listen to a daily poem from Oregon Poet Laureates. Anis currently lives in Portland Oregon where he serves on the board of Literary Arts.