Tanya Azari is a recent recipient of an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the NYU Writers’ Workshop in Paris. They hold a B.A. in Spanish from UC Davis and an A.S. in Computer Programming from Santa Monica College. Among other lives lived, they have been a journalist, spoken word performer, camp counselor, middle-school teacher, and grad-school dropout. They speak Spanish, French, and some Farsi and German.
Tanya writes poetry and nonfiction (essay/memoir); their work has been published in 7x7, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Salty Magazine, and elsewhere. They were a semi-finalist for the 2017 Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize (Tinderbox Poetry Journal) and finalist for the 2020 Death Valley National Park Artist in Residence (National Parks Arts Foundation).
As an undergraduate at UC Davis, Tanya was President of the SickSpits Spoken Word Collective, where they ran weekly writers' workshops, monthly open mics, and annual poetry slams. In 2015, they led the UC Davis slam team to the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) for the first time since 2006. As a spoken word performer and workshop facilitator, Tanya has collaborated with groups like Sacramento Area Youth Speaks (SAYS) and Take Back the Night Sacramento, and shared a stage with Andrea Gibson, Sonya Renee, Buddy Wakefield, and other notable poets. They also served as the Opinion Editor of The California Aggie during their time at UCD.
Tanya is presently the Poetry Editor for Taco Bell Quarterly and a former Editorial Intern for Red Hen Press. They were born and raised in the East Bay Area; lived for several years in Los Angeles; and currently live, write, and bike in Brooklyn, where they also teach flying trapeze classes.
Tanya writes poetry and nonfiction (essay/memoir); their work has been published in 7x7, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Salty Magazine, and elsewhere. They were a semi-finalist for the 2017 Brett Elizabeth Jenkins Poetry Prize (Tinderbox Poetry Journal) and finalist for the 2020 Death Valley National Park Artist in Residence (National Parks Arts Foundation).
As an undergraduate at UC Davis, Tanya was President of the SickSpits Spoken Word Collective, where they ran weekly writers' workshops, monthly open mics, and annual poetry slams. In 2015, they led the UC Davis slam team to the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI) for the first time since 2006. As a spoken word performer and workshop facilitator, Tanya has collaborated with groups like Sacramento Area Youth Speaks (SAYS) and Take Back the Night Sacramento, and shared a stage with Andrea Gibson, Sonya Renee, Buddy Wakefield, and other notable poets. They also served as the Opinion Editor of The California Aggie during their time at UCD.
Tanya is presently the Poetry Editor for Taco Bell Quarterly and a former Editorial Intern for Red Hen Press. They were born and raised in the East Bay Area; lived for several years in Los Angeles; and currently live, write, and bike in Brooklyn, where they also teach flying trapeze classes.