Ira Goga

Ira Goga received a BA in biochemistry from Smith College. They are an antibodies researcher in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Goga is the winner of the 2020 Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award for their poem "The Kitchen, Indexed." About the poem, judge Forrest Gander says:

“The description of a personality might begin with a list of objects the person keeps. Who would have a no-kill mousetrap and a stone with a crystal in its hollow? But in this poem, the list of delineated objects yields to the stated intentions of the maker of the list, whose identity is not as circumscribed as the objects, and who must, in fact, go through the trouble of renaming themselves. The sharp enjambments and line breaks, and the pared-down syntax add to the psychological tension of trying to nail something down, even the smallest truth.”