Janissa Marie Annalissia Martinez
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITER
This project is a multi-genre autobiographical fiction piece, in both English and Spanish, which includes a mixture of photos of my family and discarded masks. This piece includes vignettes told in voiceovers detailing my and my family’s experiences with COVID-19. Throughout these vignettes, I discuss the pandemic through the lens of my grandmother’s real and imagined texts and Facebook posts. I have included newspaper clippings and quotes from communities across the state. I want this project to act as a letter to families in Wyoming that have been torn apart by vaccine hesitancy. Families like my own. I want this project to help heal a rift that has broken families apart during a time when the pandemic has already hurt so many.
Janissa Marie Annalissia Martinez
Janissa Marie Analissia Martinez is a writer from Glendo, Wyoming, who loves to write quiet, visceral, character-driven fiction about the rural spaces where she grew up. She writes from perspectives that try to change our understanding of Wyoming and what it means to live in rural spaces. In her minimal spare time, she likes to work on yarn crafts, her Stardew Valley farm, and playing pretend with her daughter. She is currently trying to balance pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of Wyoming, working full time, and spending time with her family.