Born in Chicago, poet Jaswinder Bolina earned a BA in philosophy from Loyola University in Chicago, an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in English with a creative writing concentration from Ohio University. As an Asian American poet, his work reflects the richness of his cultural background as well as his experiences growing up in an immigrant family. He is the author of the chapbook The Tallest Building in America (2014), The 44th of July (2019), Carrier Wave (2007), winner of the 2006 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and Phantom Camera (2013), winner of the Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues Press and published in an international edition by Hachette India.

Bolina’s most recent book English as a Second Language and Other Poems (Copper Canyon 2023) was awarded the 2025 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award from Claremont Graduate University.

Compared to poets as diverse as John Ashbery, James Tate, and Dean Young, Bolina investigates language, experience, and innovative writing. Poet Ravi Shankar, writing on The Best American Poetry blog, noted that Bolina “breaks new perceptual and sonic ground,” adding “he encapsulates the American South Asian immigrant experience, at least as I’ve experienced it.”

Bolina was the 2010–2011 Elma Stuckey Liberal Arts & Sciences Emerging Poet-in-Residence at Columbia College in Chicago. He is the author of the collection of essays Of Color (2020). His critical and creative writing has been included in The Task of Un/Masking (2014), Language: A Reader for Writers (2013), Best American Poetry (2011), and Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook (2010). Bolina currently teaches in the MFA program at the University of Miami.