​​​​​​​​​​Amanda Chiado

Amanda Chiado won the 2026 Press 53 Award for Poetry, selected by Tom Lombardo for her prose poetry collection, Today I Wear the Bear Head. Her poem "My Great-grandmother Had the Face of Beast" was selected by Diane Suess for The Best Microfiction 2026. She  is the author Prime Cuts (Bottlecap Press, 2025) and Vitiligod: The Ascension of Michael Jackson (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in RHINO, Puerto Del Sol, Pithead Chapel, The Pinch, and many others.

Amanda is writer, teacher and arts advocate. She is the Director of Arts Education for the San Benito County Arts Council and is a California Poet in the Schools.

Amanda is a credentialed teacher and holds degrees from the University of New Mexico, California College of the Arts, and Grand Canyon University. She edits for Jersey Devil Press.

Her work has garnered support from the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, The Creative Capacity Fund, the Highlights Foundation and The Luna Dance Institute. She is a Best New Poet, and her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.