Anis Mojgani
Quick answer: A craft guide to Anis Mojgani: surreal gentle imagery, the poem as blessing and whimsical list-making, plus practice advice and where to start reading him.
Anis Mojgani won the National Poetry Slam individual championship two years running, in 2005 and 2006, yet his work sounds nothing like the shouting the word slam suggests. Born in New Orleans in 1977, of Iranian and African American heritage, Mojgani built his reputation on gentleness: surreal, generous poems that feel like being handed something warm. He later became poet laureate of Oregon.
His most famous piece, Shake the Dust, is a roll call of overlooked people told to rise, and it displays his core method: the poem as benediction. If your work leans dark and you want to learn how hope can be written without sentimentality, Mojgani is one of the best living teachers, entirely by example.
Who he is
Mojgani trained as a visual artist before poetry took over, and the painter's habit of strange, precise images never left him. His collections include Over the Anvil We Stretch, The Feather Room, In the Pockets of Small Gods and The Tigers, They Let Me, and as Oregon's laureate he carried poems into schools, libraries and small towns across the state.
He belongs to the softer lineage of American spoken word, closer to Whitman's catalogues and to fable than to battle rap. The performances win audiences not by volume but by wonder, which is a harder trick.
The signature moves
Four habits define his poems on stage and page.
What you can learn
Write a blessing without using the word bless. Address a group nobody praises, night-shift cleaners, kids repeating a year at school, people eating alone, and give each one concrete gift-image. Specificity is what separates benediction from greeting card.
Practise calm surrealism: write an impossible sentence, then deliver it in the plainest grammar you own. The flatness is the frame that lets strangeness glow. And try ending a loud draft quietly; where you would normally rise, drop instead, and see whether the room leans in. Poems that manage tonal control like this tend to score well on structure and emotion together, something worth remembering when you send work to a monthly contest such as Writory's.
Where to start
Watch or listen to Shake the Dust first, then Come Closer, and For Those Who Can Ride an Airplane for the First Time. In print, In the Pockets of Small Gods is his most sustained meditation, written through grief, and The Tigers, They Let Me shows the late, settled voice.
What poets can take from this
- Write blessings for people nobody praises, one concrete gift-image each.
- Deliver impossible images in plain grammar so strangeness reads as tenderness.
- Let catalogues expand a poem outward until the whole room feels included.
- Try ending a loud poem quietly and watch the audience lean in.
- Keep a notebook of small joys; whimsy needs an inventory to draw on.
Try it yourself
Write a benediction for everyone awake at 4 a.m. in your town. Name at least five different people specifically, give each one image of comfort, and end on a whisper rather than a rise.
Questions
What is Anis Mojgani known for?
He is a two-time National Poetry Slam individual champion, famous for the poem Shake the Dust, and served as poet laureate of Oregon. His style is gentle, surreal and celebratory.
What is the poem Shake the Dust about?
It is a roll call of overlooked and struggling people, each addressed directly and told to shake the dust, to rise and be counted. It shows his signature blessing structure.
Which Anis Mojgani book should I start with?
In the Pockets of Small Gods is a strong entry point in print, though hearing him perform Shake the Dust first gives you his voice.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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