About
“As an LA native, I think Pulizer Prize writer Kendrick Lamar said it best, stating ‘They’re not like us.’ He’s right. Los Angeles is its own unique planet. Rotate on that.” –pam ward
• City of Los Angeles Trailblazer poet 2025
• LA Olympian Poet, Paris Olympics 2024
• Founding member Leimert Park Book Festival
• Pushcart Nominee for poetry
• California Poet: selected by CA Poet Laureate, Lee Herrick
• Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, finalist
• owner, Pam Ward Graphic Design
• Instructor/ Mentor, Art Center College of Design
• California Arts Council Literary Fellow
• Diva Award recipient, Black Women for Wellness
• Board Member: Beyond Baroque
• Board Member: The World Stage
• Artist in Residence: Poets in Schools, Venice High, Manhattan Beach
• Founder of Short Dress Press, community publisher
• Mother, Yoga Instructor, Documentarian
• WorkshopsCalifornia African American Museum, LA Cultural Affairs, World Stage,
Art Center College, Beyond Baroque Literary Arts, Black Women for Wellness
BIO- LA native, Pam Ward’s poetry anthology, “BETWEEN GOOD MEN & NO MAN AT ALL,” World Stage Press, was a honorable mention for the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award. She’s authored two novels, “WANT SOME GET SOME,” and “BAD GIRLS BURN SLOW,” Kensington, is a UCLA graduate, California Arts Council Fellow, Pushcart Poetry Nominee and founding member of the Leimert Park Book Fair. Publications include, Voices of Leimert Park, Renaissance Noir, and the LA Times and was recently honored by LA Department of Cultural Affairs as a Trailblazer writer, 2025 after her participation in the first literary Olympics, Paris, 2024. Pam’s been a writer in residence, a board member of Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Foundation and The World Stage, conducted workshops for Black Women for Wellness, Art Center College of Design and runs her the community press, Short Dress Press. Her YA novel is entitled, STOVES DON’T CRY and her just completed novel, “I’ll Get You My Pretty,” is based on her aunt's role in the Black Dahlia murder.
Recent Publications
-Altadena Poetry Review, “Drop It Like It’s Hot”
-Poetry Goes to the Movies, “The Eyes of Laura Mars, the Best Movie I Never Saw”
-Catching the Fire, “Waterhose Man”
-Asian American Pacific Islander, “Savoring Suehiro at 3am”
-Statement Journal, “How Girl Writer Tribes Are Born” for Amy Uyematsu
-From Venice to Venice: Poets of California & Italy, “Single Mom”
-LA Poetry, “Two Poets and a Bag of Peaches” for Lynn Manning
-Dissent Anthology, “Rioter’s Blues”
-Beat Not Beat: anthology of California Poets, “Stella on Friday”
-The Los Angeles Review, “Jeremy Strohmeyer,” editor Wanda Coleman
-Poems About James Brown, “Black As A Bulletproof Vest”
-From the Four Chambered Heart, poems on Anais Nin, “Anais’ Husband”
Articles/Press
Pam Ward and Jaha Zainabu: A SoCal Poetry Conversation
Discover Nikkei: Pam Ward’s tribute to LA poet Amy Uyemetsu
Los Angeles Literature “Two Poets & A Bag of Peaches: My Last Day with Lynn Manning by Pam Ward
Sensitive Skin Magazine Reviews Pam Ward’s “Between Good Men & No Man At All”
How to Float: A Poet, The Woman’s Building and Beyond Baroque
A Bird’s Eye View of the Universe: Pam Ward Contemplates James Baldwin
Excerpt from “The Writing Life: 55 years of Beyond Baroque”
Interlitq, California Poets Part 4: Pam Ward