Clarissa Mendiola

Clarissa Mendiola is a native daughter of Guåhan, the southernmost island in the Mariana archipelago. She is a mother, a poet, and she has lived in San Francisco for more than two decades. As a Chamoru woman raised in diaspora, poetry is the method by which she bridges the distance between her home island and where she stands. Clarissa’s work can be found in various journals and publications including As Us, Literary Hub, Omniverse, Storyboard, and the Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia anthology from the University of Hawai’i Press. She received a BS from the University of San Francisco and an MFA in Writing from the California College of Arts. She was a 2011 Hedgebrook Writer in Residence and currently teaches creative writing camps at a San Francisco high school where she also serves as a communications writer.