Jessica Baran is the author of three poetry collections: Remains to Be Used (Apostrophe Books), Equivalents (Lost Roads Press) and Common Sense (Lost Roads Press). Her poems have appeared in The New York Times, the Boston Review, The Denver Quarterly, Harp and Altar, and A Public Space, among other publications. She is also an art writer, whose essays and reviews have appeared in publications such as Art in America, Artforum, Art Papers, BOMB Magazine, Frieze, Flash Art, Hyperallergic, the Riverfront Times and the Village Voice, as well as several gallery and museum exhibition catalogues. Her book Equivalents won the inaugural Besmilr Brigham Women Writer’s Prize, and she is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship in Literature from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-Form Criticism.. 

 

In addition to her writing, she has co-organized two St. Louis poetry reading series and overseen programming at several local art spaces. She has also curated numerous solo and group exhibitions at venues such as the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis, the Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City and the SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York. Her art historical research has been presented at the College Art Association annual conference and supported by the Melon-funded Divided City research fellowship. She teaches undergraduate poetry writing workshops as well as writing courses in the Prison Education Project and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art.