Jennifer Chang

Jennifer Chang is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin's College of Liberal Arts. She is a celebrated poet and scholar whose work bridges creative writing, modernist poetics, and Asian American studies. Her contributions to contemporary literature include multiple award-winning poetry collections and scholarly essays on race, identity, and environmental themes.

Education:

• MFA, University of Virginia
• PhD, University of Virginia

Research Interests:
Jennifer Chang's scholarly and creative work centers on the intersections of poetry, identity, and environment. Her research explores how contemporary and modernist poetics engage with race, national identity, and environmental consciousness. She is particularly interested in Asian American lyric poetry and the role of voice and fragmentation in poetic expression.

Her poetry often meditates on family, motherhood, immigration, and the legacies of patriarchy and war. Through both her creative and academic writing, she interrogates the boundaries between personal experience and collective history, using lyrical precision to challenge dominant narratives.

Awards and Honors:

• 2025 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for An Authentic Life
• 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
• William Carlos Williams Award
• Levinson Prize from Poetry
• Fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, and Elizabeth Murray Artists Residency

Editorial & Teaching Roles:
Chang serves as the poetry editor for the New England Review and frequently teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars and the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference. Her teaching includes undergraduate and graduate courses in creative writing, poetry workshops, and literature for writers.