About
JENNIFER ROCHE is a collage artist, poet, and writer who lives and works in Chicago. Her work uses experimental techniques and constraints to explore ideas of humanity, power, nature, humor, and language.
CV
Chapbooks & Collections
The Synonym Tables. The Poetry Question. 2021. Contains several Pushcart Prize nominated works for creative nonfiction.
20,, erasure poems from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Alternating Current Press. 2020
Footnote, A Literary Journal of History, Volume 2. Three poems from 20,, 2019. Contributor.
Art Exhibits
Pulp Stiction, Collage as an Act of Resistance, curated by Emily Morgan, Hopkins Hall Gallery, The Ohio State University, 2026
Poetry on the Wall: Fragment as Verse, curated by Ric Kasini Kadour, Kolaj Institute, New Orleans, 2026
Self-Construction collage exhibit curated by Sierra Severson and Emily Lots of Glue, Chicago, IL, 2025.
Big Orange Monster: An Emergency Collage Exhibition, Kolaj Institute, New Orleans, 2025.
Roe 2.0 Virtual Exhibition, juried show by Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2023.
Published Poems
“the sieve,” in SWWIM, 2022
Fevers of the Mind, reprints of two poems. 2021
“Shopping for my Mother,” What Rough Beast | COVID EDITION. Indolent Books. 2020
“you and me and all the gods,” Tule Review, 2020
“The Synonym Tables,” Storm Cellar, Volume 8, No. 3. 2020. Pushcart Prize nominated.
“What Sexuality Can Be (for David Bowie),” Oyez Review, 2018
“The City of X,” The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society, September 2015
“February Poem #2: The Calving,” Ghost Ocean, Volume 14
Saturday on Lincoln Ave., Anthology of Chicago, 2015
“The Gates of Ismat Towers,” Found Poetry Frontiers. 2015
Zines
A Kaleidoscope of Forms, edited by Michał Kamil Piotrowski. The Poetry School. 2024. Contributor.
Guardians of the Jungle Zine, edited by Maja Sereda. 2023. Contributor.
Non-fiction Writing (Selected)
“True art: CUTOUT FESTIVAL breaks attendance records in Ukraine,” interview with the curators of CUTOUT FESTIVAL, forthcoming in Kolaj Magazine.
Migration and Me: Connecting People through Stories of Nature and Place, Faith in Place. 2018
“Socially Engaged Art, Critics and Discontents: An Interview with Claire Bishop,” published in Artistic Bedfellows: Histories, Theories, and Conversations in Collaborative Art Practices edited by Holly Crawford and published by University Press of America, 2008
Awards
Pushcart Prize nominated by Storm Cellar for “The Synonym Tables,” creative nonfiction. 2020
Named “Writer to Watch in 2019 & Beyond” by the Chicago Guild Literary Complex. 2019
Charter Oak Award Semifinalist for Best Historical Writing for erasure poems of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 2016
Curation and Facilitation
"The Elusive X: Virtual PoetryXCollage Residency," faciltator, February 2026
Chicago Collage Community (@chicagocollagecommunity), co-curator and volunteer, 2024 - 2026
Sunday Collage Collective, facilitator, monthly online collage meetup, 2022 - present
“Ode to Fury,” found poetry workshop, Chicago Public Schools (Walter Payton College Prep), 2017-2018
“Ode to Fury,” found poetry workshop, Chicago Public Library, 2015
Education
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, BS
University of Chicago, MLA