Orygun

Jessica Tyner Mehta is the author of The Last Exotic Petting Zoo and What Makes an Always by Tayen Lane Publishing, and The Wrong Kind of Indian by Wyatt MacKenzie Publishing. An award-winning poet, novelist and writer, her work has appeared in over 50 magazines and journals around the world, including "Ray's Road Review" which nominated her poem "Speleology" for a Pushcart Prize. She has been a featured reader at numerous literary events including India's International Poetry Festival (New Delhi), Wordstock (Portland, Ore.), the International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference (Allentown, Penn.), and Berl's Poetry Bookshop (Brooklyn). Jessica also reads and performs her work as a "poetry whore" with the international Poetry Brothel series, performing in both Portland and Brooklyn. The show brings international poets to the stage to embrace a persona in a 1920s themed event where patrons purchase a poet's time for private readings. She performs under the stage name "Savage," a nod to her Native American heritage. Jessica received a Writers in the Schools (WITS) residency from Literary Arts, a teaching artist fellowship, and was a founding member of the organization's Writers of Color committee. A confessional poet who relies heavily on honesty, transparency and narrative approaches to writing, her work has been applauded by poets Marvin Bell and Luis Chaves. Jessica counts poets Kim Addonizio and Li-Young Lee as her greatest poetic inspiration.