Jen Yáñiz-Alaniz is a Chicana Mestiza activist, educator, and poet. She is a PhD Fellow in Culture, Literacy, and Language at the University of Texas, San Antonio. As co- founder of Welcome: A Poetry Declaration, she brings awareness through equity-driven conversations centered on the preservation of language and language literacy. Her work, Matrilineal Poetics: Toward an Understanding of Corporeality and Identity is featured in Latinas in Hollywood Herstories. Her poetry is published in various journals and anthologies including an extensive critical biography of Carmen Tafolla in Chicana Portraits, edited by Dr. Norma E. Cantú. She is the author of Surrogate Eater (Alabrava Press).
