Performance: JoAnna Scandiffio, Water Is Never Still

Enjoy a poetry reading from JoAnna Scandiffio’s chapbook Water Is Never Still. 

"After her mother’s death, a young Mexican girl navigates grief, history, and identity."

JoAnna Scandiffio is a poet, graduate gemologist, and educator based in San Francisco. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of San Francisco and has taught at Queens College in New York City and City College of San Francisco.

Before turning her full attention to writing, Scandiffio built a distinguished career as a fine jewelry appraiser, including a tenure as Vice President at Butterfield & Butterfield auction house. There she lectured, published articles on jewelry and represented the company at forums and conferences across the United States and in China. Her gemologist's eye — trained to examine objects with precision and patience — continues to shape her poetry.

Her poems are like bird nests: assembled from fragments, seemingly chance-gathered, yet holding something whole.

Scandiffio's work has appeared in Calyx, The Ekphrastic Review, Gyroscope Review, Ink in Thirds, Italian Americana, Poets 11, The MacGuffin, The Poeming Pigeon, The RavensPerch, Riders of the Storm, Switched-on Gutenberg and other journals. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was a finalist for the Jane Underwood Prize.