Simone Zapata is a queer poet, editor, and educator based in Oakland, CA. Her recent work appears in Dilettante Army, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Brink Literary Journal, where she served as the inaugural Emerging Writer Fellow in Hybrid Writing. Her poetry has earned her scholarships from Community of Writers, Banff Centre, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and she was selected by Marie Howe as Finalist for the 2023 Adrienne Rich Award. She holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts.
PUBLICATIONS
2024 | “Wayward Taxonomies” Dilettante Army, Issue Summer 2024
2024 | “we tell ourselves stories in order to live” sPARKLE & bLINK, Issue 117
2024 | “Deep Breath” Beloit Poetry Journal, Volume 73, Issue 2
2024 | “Required Transfusion” Brink Literary Journal, Issue 7
2023 | “‘we tell ourselves stories in order to live’” Inverted Syntax, Issue 5
2023 | “My therapist asks me if I like myself” Inverted Syntax, Issue 5
2023 | “As Particulate Matter” Midnight Chem, Issue 1 (Pushcart nominated)
2023 | “Spaces of Affect and Enormity: Angela Peñaredondo Interviewed by Simone Zapata” MAYDAY
2023 | “Reason for Consultation” The Vassar Review, Issue 8
2023 | “In the beginning we were waves” Reed Magazine, Issue 156
2023 | “Spray Paint” Spectrum Literary Journal, Volume 66
2023 | “Stone Sequence” Tiny Spoon, Issue 10
2022 | “A Cauldron of Bats” Foglifter Journal, Volume 7, Issue 2
2022 | “Stranded Prepositions” The Quarterless Review, Volume 22
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2024 | Poet & Author Fellowship, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing
2024 | Patricia Clifford Scholarship, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
2023 | Finalist, Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry, selected by Marie Howe
2023 | Emerging Writer Fellowship in Hybrid Writing, Brink Literary Journal
2023 | Finalist, Sublingua Prize for Poetry, Inverted Syntax
2023 | Burnett Miller Memorial Scholarship, Community of Writers
2022 | REEF Post-Graduate Fellowship, California Institute of the Arts
2021 | Finalist, Nightboat Poetry Prize, Nightboat Books
EXHIBITIONS
2024 | Poetry in Parks, Quiet Lightning
Group Exhibition, China Camp State Park, CA
2022 | Tense Renderings: the will and won’t of spatial logics
Co-curated with Fía Benitez, The REEF, Los Angeles, CA
2021 | Voices Under Water
Solo Exhibition, WaveCave, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2021 | Inheritance
Group Exhibition, Glendale, CA
2021 | Next Words
Group Exhibition, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
2021 | Come Sail Away
Group Exhibition, NeurOpera, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2020 | Resonance, Instability & Witness
Group Exhibition, Discrepant Engagement: An Interdisciplinary Writing Symposium
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
ZINES
2023 | Collected Poems, edited by Sarah Sophia Yanni
Circa Festival, Los Angeles, CA
2022 | An Evening of Performance, edited by C. Bain
Los Angeles, CA
2020 | Until Further Notice, co-authored with Christine Imperial
Documentary Poetics, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2020 | Site of Limitation, co-authored with Christine Imperial
The Practice of Publishing, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
2018 | Standing Out (editor)
Chapter 510, Oakland, CA
2018 | Home is a Place (editor)
Chapter 510, Oakland, CA
2018 | Mother of Gold (editor)
Chapter 510, Oakland, CA
2018 | What is Beneath
San José ZineCon, San José, CA
2018 | Body Channels, co-authored with Li Patron
Bay Area Queer Zine Festival, Oakland, CA
2016 | Notes from the Highway
South Bay DIY Zine Collective, San José, CA
2016 | Breaking the Ice
Cheers From The Wasteland, San José, CA
2016 | Names
Think and Die Thinking Zine Trade, San José, CA