Jessica Doe (née Mehta, Tyner), PhD is an Aniyunwiya inter/anti/multi-disciplinary poet and artist. As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, but born in the occupied [read: stolen] land of what is today often called Oregon, space, place, and ancestry are driving factors in her work. Jessica’s doctoral work focused on eating disorders in female poetry and her Fulbright Senior Scholar post (Bengaluru, India) culminated in the curation of an anthology of contemporary Indian poetry written in the colonizer’s tongue.

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Jessica is currently under contract with Red Planet Books to produce a hybrid poetry/illustrated book in collaboration with artist Kendrick Payton titled “[sp]RED” which Indigenizes and de-colonizes the tarot deck. Her installation “The Red C[h]airn Project” is one of four pieces currently on exhibit at the re-opening of the Ucross Art Gallery. It is a mid-scale work that she originally designed as the autumn 2021 Native American visual artist-in-resident. Jessica’s forthcoming exhibitions include group shows at Kala Art Gallery in 2023 and The Walters Cultural Center (2024).

Jessica integrates technology into many of her creative projects as a natural extension of her work as the founder of the SEO writing services company MehtaFor. One example of this tempering is “Red/Act,” a pop-up virtual reality poetry experience made with proprietary software and featuring family archival photos, an experimental form of poetry she created, and performance art. It aims to introduce a wider audience to poetry, and specifically Indigenous poetry, through a uniquely immersive encounter. Virtual galleries of her work transpired during COVID to allow for continued audience engagement. Her “emBODY poetry” performance series features experimental poetry on nude form while incorporating shibari rope work to address topics on body image and eating disorders in under-represented communities.

Her first children’s picture book, “One of Kokum’s Kids,” received a 2022 publication prize from Lee & Low Books and will be released in 2023. Her collection When We Talk of Stolen Sisters received three gold awards from the 2022 Human Relations Indie Awards while her collection Selected Poems: 2000-2020 (2020) was awarded the 2020 Birdy Publication Prize from Meadowlark books. Jessica’s poetry collection Savagery received gold from the 2020 Book Excellence Awards and Reader View Literary Awards. Her novel The Wrong Kind of Indian won gold at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) and at the American Book Fest Best Book. Jessica has also received numerous fellowships in recent years, including the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington and the Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship at The British Library in London. Jessica is a popular speaker, featured at events such as the US State Department’s National Poetry Month event, “Poets as Cultural Emissaries: A Conversation with Women Writers,” as well as the “Women’s Transatlantic Prison Activism Since 1960” symposium at Oxford University.

She has undertaken poetry and artist residencies around the globe including at Hosking Houses Trust with an appointment at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, Paris Lit Up in France, and at the Crazy Horse Memorial and museum in South Dakota. Her work has been featured at galleries and exhibitions around the world, including IA&A Hillyer in Washington DC, Asheville Art Museum, The Emergency Gallery in Sweden, and Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico.

Jessica is also an experienced registered yoga instructor (ERYT-500®), registered children’s yoga teacher (RCYT®), registered prenatal yoga teacher (RPYT®), registered yin yoga teacher, registered aerial yoga teacher, certified Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider (YACEP®), certified in Reiki I and II, and a NASM-certified personal trainer (CPT). She’s the founder of Mehtananda, a movement that offers free classes to groups that don’t have access to traditional yoga studios and/or don’t feel comfortable in such environments while exploring yoga through a de-colonized approach.