Poet in Residence

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko is our Poet in Residence. An incredibly strong poet she’s been a regular at SpokenWord since 2006 with poems that combine a mastery of craft and a powerful voice. Her poetry ranges from the courageous to the tender, the spiritual to the raunchy.

Biography:

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko trained as an actress at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. She was first introduced on the BBC and to the literary world by the legendary Tambimuttu of Poetry London–-publisher of T.S. Eliot, Henry Miller and Bob Dylan, to name a few. After his death, it was his friend the late great Kathleen Raine who took an interest in her writing and encouraged her to publish. Although her manuscript was orphaned upon ‘Tambi’s passing, her poems and correspondence have been included in his Special Collections at Northwestern University. A former San Francisco Poetry Slam Champion and devotee of Spoken Word, she has read and performed at various venues including S.F.’s renowned Purple Onion and The  Intersection for the Arts. Her sold-out one-woman show Where the Blue Begins was presented in conjunction with Sonoma’s performing art series Women on the Edge. More recently she has presented her work at Shakespeare & Company, participated in three présentations hosted by Three Rooms Press as well as performed at 100 Thousand Poets for Change here in Paris. She also placed second in the 2015 Poetry Slam hosted by Paris Lit Up. Klimenko’s works are widely published in journals and anthologies, among them. CounterPunch, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology, Big Bridge, Levure Litteraire, Knot Magazine, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Bastille, Strangers in Paris—New Writing Inspired by the City of Light, Paris Lit Up,  Vox Populi, Ink Sweat and Tears, The Criterion International Literary Journal, Occupy Poetry (in which she is distinguished as an American Poet) and Maintenant: Journal of Contemporary Dada Writing and Art archived at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C and in New York’s Museum of Modern Art.