JESSICA TYNER MEHTA

Jessica (Tyner) Mehta, born and raised in Oregon and is a member of the Cherokee Nation. She is the author of six books including the forthcoming poetry collection Secret-Telling Bones by The Operating System, the novel The Wrong Kind of Indian by Wyatt-MacKenzie Press, Orygun, What Makes an Always (an Eric Hoffer Book Award honorable mention), and The Last Exotic Petting Zoo by Tayen Lane.

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Jessica founded MehtaFor, a writing services company, in 2012 which serves a variety of clients including Fortune 500 enterprises and major media outlets. MehtaFor received two national bronze awards for Startup of the Year in 2015. Jessica offers complimentary writing services to Native American students and non-profits based in the Pacific Northwest and/or serving Native communities. She also offers the MehtaFor Trainee program which teaches new writers how to pursue a lucrative writing career.

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She received her master’s degree in writing from Portland State University in 2007, and established The Jessica Tyner Scholarship Fund in 2013. It’s the only scholarship exclusively for Native Americans pursuing an advanced degree in writing or a related field. Jessica was awarded a Writers in the Schools (WITS) residency from the Oregon Literary Arts Council in 2015-16.

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An in-demand speaker, she has been featured at the Mt. Hood Cherokees summit, was the keynote speaker for Metro (Portland’s regional government organization) at the “Lunch & Learn with Jessica Mehta: Native American Heritage Month” event, has read at Wordstock, and taught workshops at the Oregon Writing Festival and International Guild of Women Writers Summer Conference Series. She hosts Sauvignon Tongued Devils, a spoken word night at Devil’s Den Wine Bar in the Alberta Arts District and also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the VoiceCatcher Journal and non-profit. Prior to her residency at WISC, she was awarded residencies at Hosking Houses Trust (Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK), Paris Lit Up (Paris, France), and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK).

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Jessica is also a registered yoga instructor (RYT), certified personal trainer (CPT), and teaches power vinyasa and weight lifting at Balance 365 Fitness in Hillsboro, Oregon. She founded the Get it Ohm! karmic yoga and strength movement, which offers free classes to groups that don’t have access to traditional yoga studios and/or don’t feel comfortable in such environments.

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Visit Jessica’s author site at www.jessicamehta.com