POET • TEACHER • EDITOR 

Jami Macarty gratefully recognizes Native Nations of the West—especially the Coast Salish and O’odham—as the traditional and rightful owners of lands where she has the great privilege to live and learn—as a teacher at Simon Fraser University, as an independent editor, and as a writer of essays, reviews, and poetry.

Macarty’s first full-length poetry collection, The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), won the 2020 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award – Poetry Arizona and was listed in the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses roundup of notable 2020 poetry debuts. The title poem from this collection won the 2016 Real Good Poem Prize (selected by Kiki Petrosino) and was published as a broadside from Rabbit Catastrophe Press. The poem “Thin Attachment” from this collection also appeared in the June 24, 2021 edition of Poetry Daily. Writing in Interim magazine, reviewer Lucy Aul (penname of Claudia Keelan) observes that “the book is in dialogue with a theological concept of detachment, wherein what is sought is a release from desire”; Bill Neumire notes in a review for Vallum magazine that The Minuses “engages with [the] notion of minuses as subtraction, loss, missingness, but also the Buddhist idea of that which you gain by losing desire and distraction.” 

Macarty is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry. The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024), a 2025 finalist for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, includes an elegy for a dear friend, a mesostic celebration of beloved Earth, and love poem of hope for intimate connection and . Instinctive Acts (Nomados Literary Publishers, 2018) contemplates immigration, identity, and place in Vancouver, British Columbia’s Downtown Eastside. Mind of Spring (No. 22, Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award, is a walking meditation, contemplating social, cultural, environmental, and personal mechanisms of war, accompanied is by the Palo Verde, Arizona State Tree. Macarty’s first chapbook, Landscape of The Wait (Finishing Line Press, 2017), is a poetic response to her nephew William’s car accident and year-long coma.

Macarty’s writing has been honored by financial support from Arizona Commission on the Arts, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, British Columbia Arts Council, Community of Writers, The Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, and other arts entities, and by editors at American, Australian, British, and Canadian literary magazines, including Arc Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Capilano Review, EVENT, The Fiddlehead, Interim: Poetry & Poetics, The Journal, Otoliths, Orbis, The Rumpus, Vallum Magazine, and Volt.

As co-founder and editor of the online poetry magazine, The Maynard (founded 2008; currently on hiatus), Macarty supported and promoted international poets by selecting, editing, and publishing their poems. As the Executive Director of Tucson Poetry Festival (1996-2005), Macarty hosted some of the most important poets, writing in any time and language—Jean Valentine, Gary Snyder, Myung Mi Kim, Arthur Sze, Anne Waldman, Garrett Hongo, Robert Bly, Russell Edson, Jane Hirshfield, and many more—to the week-long celebration of contemporary poetry in Tucson, Arizona during National Poetry Month. Macarty’s more recent forays into literary arts administration and community service include workshop instructor and event host for the Vancouver literacy organization Pandora’s Collective (2014-2019), Poetry Ambassador (2016-2018) for Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, Rachel Rose (2014-2017), and Fresh Local Poet for Vancouver Park Board (2016-2018), where Macarty flew on the team to name Vancouver’s City Bird (Anna’s Hummingbird!).

Since 1989, Macarty has practiced yoga and meditation, and these practices inform her creative work. Since 1991, Macarty has taught English, English literature (modern, postmodern, and contemporary), composition, critical analysis, poetry, and poetics. As well as in Canada and the United States, Macarty has taught English and yoga in Ecuador, Ethiopia, Nepal, and United Arab Emirates. Macarty is bolstered by a beloved community of students, readers, colleagues, and friends.