Faculty

Profile

Born in Toronto, J. Mae Barizo is a poet, essayist and hybrid artist who works at the intersection of poetics, media and performance. She is the author of two books of poetry, Tender Machines (Tupelo Press, 2023) and The Cumulus Effect (Four Way Books, 2015). Becoming Hybrid, her book on transdisciplinary and literary theory is forthcoming in the Poets on Poetry series at University of Michigan Press. Pink Noise, a book of hybrid essays on John Cage and the poetics of sound was a finalist for the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and the 2023 Megaphone Prize. Her work has been anthologized in books published by Simon & Schuster, W.W. Norton, Atelier Editions and Harvard University Press.

An advocate of hybrid work, she has collaborated with artists such as Salman Rushdie, Mark Morris and the American String Quartet. In 2024, she was an artist resident at Baryshnikov Arts Center. As a maker of theatre work, her dramas have been premiered worldwide and she was the inaugural recipient of Opera America's IDEA residency, given to artists who have the potential to shape the future of opera. She is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the MAP Fund, Bennington College, Mellon Foundation, Critical Minded and Poets House.

Degrees Held

MFA (Poetry), Bennington College

MA (Performance), Mannes I The New School 

Recent Publications

Books

Becoming Hybrid (University of Michigan Press, 2026)

Tender Machines (Tupelo Press, 2023)

The Cumulus Effect (Four Way Books, 2015)

Anthologies

Poetry is Not a Luxury (Simon & Schuster)

Renga For Obama (Harvard University Press)

The Kiss (W.W. Norton)

Publications

Academy of American Poets, The Atlantic, Book Forum, Boston Review, Esquire, Los Angeles Review of Books, Iowa Review, NYLON, Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, among others. 

Performances and Appearances

PUBLIC EVENTS

Carnegie Hall with The Knights (October 2025)

Parsons Paris (June 2025) 

The Clark Institute (May 2025)

AWP Los Angeles (March 2025)

COMMISSIONS 

DRIFT (Opera Saratoga, 2026)

WOMBWOUND (Houston Performing Arts, University of San Diego) 

UNBROKEN (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2024)

ISOLA (Long Beach Opera, 2025; Princeton University, 2022) 

INTERVIEWS

Bomb Interview with J. Mae Barizo BOMB Magazine 

Research Interests

Contemporary Poetics, Performance, Radically Inclusive Pedagogy and Curricula, Hybrid Studies.