Jen Currin was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, on the traditional and ancestral territories of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes. They currently live on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional territories of the Halq̓eméylem-speaking peoples, including the Qayqayt, Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, and Kwantlen Nations (New Westminster, BC, a suburb of Vancouver). Jen teaches in the Creative Writing and English Upgrading Departments at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Jen’s most recent book is the short story collection Disembark (House of Anansi, 2024). They have published five collections of poetry, including Trinity Street (House of Anansi, 2023); School (Coach House, 2014), which was a finalist for a 2015 ReLit Award, the Dorothy Livesay Prize and the Pat Lowther Award; The Inquisition Yours (Coach House, 2010), which won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and was shortlisted for the 2011 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (B.C. Book Prizes), the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry, and a ReLit Award; Hagiography (Coach House, 2008); and The Sleep of Four Cities (Anvil Press, 2005). Their chapbook The Ends was published by Nomados in 2013. Jen’s first collection of stories, Hider/Seeker (Anvil Press, 2018), was awarded a Canadian Independent Book Award, was named a 2018 Globe and Mail Best Book, and was shortlisted for a ReLit Award.
