PREETI VANGANI

Poet & Writer

ABOUT PREETI

Hi, I'm Preeti Vangani. I am always the first person to start dancing (badly) at parties, I obsessively talk about books, TV shows and movies and will most definitely write an epic-grief poem if you steal my fries. I am a poet now and often write essays. You can straight up jump to my 'official' bio if you scroll down a little bit. But knowing my journey through the list of magazines I have been published in or the places I teach writing at is like seeing my heavily filtered selfie on a rare, good hair day. Before the shiny writing creds, I was an Economics graduate and a Marketing post-graduate. I do love collecting degrees. I grew up in Bombay, and worked as a brand manager for over eight years and practised writing in between meetings and sometimes, during them. By practicing I mean, I wrote very good tweets, gained some confidence, performed at tons of comedy shows and spoken word poetry slams. If someone told me in 2014 that it would one day be possible for me to be immersed in a world of writing, I'd probably laugh-spill my office-machine-bad-coffee all over myself. After much internal and familial debate (read: passive aggressive quarreling) I hit pause on my marketing career and moved to San Francisco for a writing program. Ever since, there hasn't been a day that I haven't spent time in the company of poems, poets and a community of writers who guide my work and regularly pull me out of the Imposter Syndrome death-pit. I write, I comedy, I teach, I nap, I drink more chai than water. You can now proceed to read my very profesh bio in your best Morgan Freeman voice.

Preeti Vangani is an Indian poet, writer and educator. Born and raised in Mumbai, she is the author of Mother Tongue Apologize (RLFPA Editions). Her poetry has been published in Gulf Coast, Hobart, Threepenny Review, among other journals. Her essays have been published in Buzzfeed India, The Ladies Finger, Huffington Post among other places. Her debut short story, Work Wives, was awarded the 2022 PEN America/Robert J. Dau Prize. She is the Poetry Editor for Glass and has worked as a Poet Mentor with Youth Speaks. She has read her work at several Bay Area events including Litquake, Writers with Drinks, The Racket, and Babylon Salon. Her work has been supported by residencies and fellowships from Ucross, Djerassi, Tin House, PEN America and CCI. She holds an MFA (Writing) from University of San Francisco and currently teaches in the program.