BIO
Amber West is a writer, educator, and community arts producer originally from the central coast of California and with roots in Tennessee and Oklahoma. Her poems and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies such as Calyx, Puppetry International, The Feminist Wire, Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge, Furies: A Poetry Anthology of Women Warriors, and The Routledge Companion to Puppetry & Material Performance. Her poetry chapbook, Daughter Eraser, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2015, and her genre-bending “puppet poems” have been performed nationally. West’s full-length poetry collection, Hen & God, was published by The Word Works in 2017 and described by the Washington Independent Review of Books as “out of the ordinary writing.”
Amber West earned a BA in Literature & Creative Writing at University of California, Santa Cruz, MFA in Creative Writing at New York University, and PhD in English at University of Connecticut. She is founder of the artist collective, Alphabet Arts, which she directed for ten years and for whom she created and produced the Puppets & Poets festival in Brooklyn, NY from 2011-2015. She is also a founding and current board member of Oye Group. West has been teaching writing full-time at University of California, Los Angeles since 2016 and lives in North Hollywood with her husband, actor and film/video editor, Sam T. West, and their two sons.
