Carissa Chen is from Tustin, California and is a Ph.D. student at Harvard University. Her previous work examines reconciliation after conflict, the historical impact of slavery and convict leasing, and the intersection of tax policy and the criminal justice system. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and elsewhere.
Her poetry, documentary photography, and paintings have been featured in the White House President's Committee on Arts and the Humanities, the Hall of Nations in the Kennedy Center, The Tupelo Quarterly, The Kenyon Review, and The Black Warrior Review. Her writing has been supported by the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Martin Starkie Prize from the Oxford University Poetry Society.
She earned a B.A. in History and Economics from Harvard University and an MPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Research and Contributor Profiles
Harvard Center for History and Economics
Poetry and Flash Fiction Publications
Child, I am a small animal in the godhead ravine, Wu, The Tupelo Quarterly
Images from the Clockback Badlands, The American Oxonian
American Deathbed, BOAAT Journal (Featured in Palette Poetry here)
Parable, The Kenyon Review
Pantoum, The Harvard Advocate
Time Without Sleep, Flash Fiction Finalist, Black Warrior Review
Two fiction stories in Track//Four (Nominated for Best of the Net)
Visual Art and Photography Exhibitions
The Women's Exhibition, The Harvard Advocate
She/Rose Exhibition, Hall of Nations at The Kennedy Center
Art.Write.Now Tour, Pratt Manhattan gallery, RISD Museum, Warhol Museum
Readings
Poets in Conversation at The Signet Society (Hosted event, featured readers Tawanda Mulalu, Zoe Hitzig, Imani Davis, and Alex Braslavsky)
Musical Prelude to the Inauguration (Performed with pianist Tony Yike Yang)
with my grandfather in 2016