Justin Jannise
Justin Jannise is the author of How to Be Better by Being Worse (BOA Editions 2021), which won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. His writing has appeared in Best New Poets, Best of the Net, Copper Nickel, Yale Review, and New Ohio Review. Recently a recipient of the Inprint Verlaine Prize in Poetry and a former Editor-in-Chief of Gulf Coast, Justin is a Ph.D. candidate in creative writing and literature at the University of Houston.
An excerpt from Justin's poem series "Midnight Poems":
A QUARTER TO MIDNIGHT
Deep in Kentucky, behind
twelve percent of the world’s
chain links, past snipers’ sights
and paperwork bundled into
granite-lined, torch-resistant, blear impenetrability,
a vault of gold!
I bet it’s empty,
says my mother, channel-
surfing
extremely slowly.
She gives each niche-
driven network its due time to woo her --
a relic of a sense of
trust.
Read the rest of the series on Columbia Journal
A QUARTER TO MIDNIGHT
Deep in Kentucky, behind
twelve percent of the world’s
chain links, past snipers’ sights
and paperwork bundled into
granite-lined, torch-resistant, blear impenetrability,
a vault of gold!
I bet it’s empty,
says my mother, channel-
surfing
extremely slowly.
She gives each niche-
driven network its due time to woo her --
a relic of a sense of
trust.
Read the rest of the series on Columbia Journal
Recommended Books for Aspiring Writers
- The Professor's House, by Willa Cather
- Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, by Lucille Clifton
- Heating and Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs, by Beth Ann Fennelly
- Several Short Sentences About Writing, by Verlyn Klinkenborg
- The Best of It, by Kay Ryan
Student Testimonials
“Justin Jannise was the most important teacher in my early maturation as a poet. His classes demystified the exactitudes of craft—as an undergraduate I became comfortable with meter, rhyme, and line with Justin's guidance—while emphasizing audacity, play, and delight. I am particularly grateful that Justin exposed us to a number of craft essays—something I feel I missed out on in other writing classes. Justin was a great champion of my poems and went out of his way to find a home for the chapbook I wrote in his workshop. When I teach writing in the fall, much of my course will be based on what I experienced in Justin's classroom. Justin is deeply committed to the field of poetry and to the writing lives of his students.”
—Max Seifert, now a graduate student at the University of Texas’ Michener Center
“Justin's workshop, first and foremost, is centered on exploring the strangeness of poetry. As a teacher, he tries to find poetry's ‘shape’ in each writer and help bring their vision to the surface. His practical knowledge, class readings, and direct (and kindly given) feedback helped define my goals as a poet and generate new work. I am so, so happy that I took the plunge and signed-up for his workshop!”
—Chelsea Hill
“I took a poetry workshop with Justin Jannise at Inprint. I have had 0 poetry training before this workshop. Justin did an wonderful job to introducing me to new poets, different styles of writing, and different ways of approaching my writing. Through structured workshopping of pieces by my peers and published peers, Justin showed his students the magic of poetry. Above all, thanks to Justin, my confidence in myself as a poet, as a creative has increased.”
—Fahad Punjwani
“Justin Jannise was the most important teacher in my early maturation as a poet. His classes demystified the exactitudes of craft—as an undergraduate I became comfortable with meter, rhyme, and line with Justin's guidance—while emphasizing audacity, play, and delight. I am particularly grateful that Justin exposed us to a number of craft essays—something I feel I missed out on in other writing classes. Justin was a great champion of my poems and went out of his way to find a home for the chapbook I wrote in his workshop. When I teach writing in the fall, much of my course will be based on what I experienced in Justin's classroom. Justin is deeply committed to the field of poetry and to the writing lives of his students.”
—Max Seifert, now a graduate student at the University of Texas’ Michener Center
“Justin's workshop, first and foremost, is centered on exploring the strangeness of poetry. As a teacher, he tries to find poetry's ‘shape’ in each writer and help bring their vision to the surface. His practical knowledge, class readings, and direct (and kindly given) feedback helped define my goals as a poet and generate new work. I am so, so happy that I took the plunge and signed-up for his workshop!”
—Chelsea Hill
“I took a poetry workshop with Justin Jannise at Inprint. I have had 0 poetry training before this workshop. Justin did an wonderful job to introducing me to new poets, different styles of writing, and different ways of approaching my writing. Through structured workshopping of pieces by my peers and published peers, Justin showed his students the magic of poetry. Above all, thanks to Justin, my confidence in myself as a poet, as a creative has increased.”
—Fahad Punjwani
Teaching Philosophy
One of my teachers, Tony Hoagland, said it best: "to be a trove of information, a guide and an anthology of what exists and has been done; a reference-book, to point students towards poets, poems and poetics that might introduce them to their lineage, and save them time."
One of my teachers, Tony Hoagland, said it best: "to be a trove of information, a guide and an anthology of what exists and has been done; a reference-book, to point students towards poets, poems and poetics that might introduce them to their lineage, and save them time."