Help send this award-winning poet + writer to the
2026 Macondo Writers Workshop so she can be part of the notable alumni network with prize-winning books
ABOUT JEN CHENG
Jen Cheng (she/ella/kir) is the fifth West Hollywood City Poet Laureate (2023-2026) and author of Braided Spaces. She is a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets with her project for high school students “Feng Shui Poetry in the Parks” which integrates eco-education with wellness and poetry. Cheng is a 2026 Macondista, a California Arts Council Fellow, and a Tin House Writers Workshop alumni. She was named one of the Top 50 LGBTQ+ Impact Leaders by LA Magazine (2025). Cheng’s writing is published in Passengers Journal, Colossus:Current, Altadena Poetry Review, L.A. Parent, and elsewhere.
As a freelance teaching artist , Jen needs your help. She is an active community leader and volunteer for causes including food justice and teaching free classes. People donating $100+ will get a mention in the acknowledgements in her next publication. All donors (of any amount) will get an exclusive recap of the program experience! Update: As of May 28, $1060 (out of $1578) has been raised. I’m over 67% there. Can you help me get to the finish line? A donor pledged a bonus $100 once I get to the $1500 mark.
- Macondo’s writing community consists of 200+ active community leaders, including prestigious faculty and award-winning alumni with a powerful 31-year history. Jen was selected by Macondo’s highly competitive application on her first effort and assigned to faculty mentor and Chancellor at the Academy of American Poets Marilyn Chin.
- Your support helps send Jen to attend Macondo, boosting her literary career. Projects she’s working on:
- a hybrid non-fiction book finding humor and spirituality responding to grief after her dog’s death
- poetry book of cultural translation & family stories of Mahjong
- a literary fiction project: a love story between two queer daughters struggling with their immigrant family dramas and navigating San Francisco in the late 1990s.
I need to raise $1578 for tuition fees due by May 31st. An additional $800 for travel costs by June 15th.
For this 1-week writers workshop in San Antonio, TX, fees of $1578 are due to Trinity University by May 31st. Travel costs ($800) are phase 2 of this fundraising. Thank you for your support!
DONATE via Venmo or Zelle (no fees). Or use credit card via Paypal. Payment options here. In lieu of GoFundMe transaction costs, all donations support Jen directly. Donate by May 31st!
Travel help: Donate with Amtrak points or hotel points to help support travel needs (to be arranged in June) for the workshop in July. She needs to arrive to San Antonio a few days beyond the workshop for her research about the Chinese American community and a meeting with award-winning restauranteur and chef Jennifer Dobbertin of Best Quality Daughter.
Praise for Jen’s writing
“[Jen’s collection has] poems with directives, poems that drive us towards coalition, that remind us, if we survive this world, it will be by taking action towards a better one.”
— Asa Drake, a winner of the 2020 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest,
author of One Way to Listen
Order her poetry book Braided Spaces. Please leave a note in your order of who you’d like the book autographed to! Read Jen’s Substack for free — subscribe for behind-the-scenes stories of the poet laureate life!
“[Jen’s] work reinvigorates the poetic with new, needed music.”
— Shonda Buchanan,
Award-winning author of Black Indian
“…beautiful and rare, [Jen’s poetry] speak in a voice as unique as the experiences written about.”
— Kim Dower
Second West Hollywood Poet Laureate
Sample clients of Jen’s teaching experience
JEN CHENG 