writer
poet
journalist
arts educator
Andrea Josic is a writer, poet, performer, journalist, and arts educator. She is the fifth Poet Laureate of the City of Mississauga, serving a two-year term from 2024 to 2026. She has been competing in national and international poetry slams for nearly 10 years and is an award-winning poet and journalist with work published at Whippersnapper Gallery, Meridian Arts Centre, This Magazine, Xtra, Indie88, pulpMAG, and more. They were the champion of the 2020 Toronto Poetry Slam and the co-champion of the 2019 Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam. Her work centres themes and intersections of girlhood, gender, sexuality, mental health, survivorship, disability, and diaspora.
Andrea has worked as an artist with dozens of organizations across Canada, including the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), the Peel District School Board (PDSB), the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), STEPS Public Art, VIBE Arts, lululemon, and more. As a leader in schools and communities across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond, Andrea hopes to cultivate joy, healing, and belonging in their work.
Excerpts of my work
I have over 50 publications in magazines, newspapers, and journals across the world. Find my best work here.
Last year, when I heard 3 family members died within 10 days
I spent a homemade meal’s worth calling baka
Last-minute flight deals don’t jut across the Atlantic’s grief
There’s no voucher for three kisses alternating profiles
Mom turns off the Skype call and the website shows “suggested cheaper dates”
Over 8 years my order never changed—even when I found out I was lactose intolerant I was willing to risk everything for a medium cheese pizza. The owner asked me about school and work and he proudly told me that business is going well. I talked to the regulars, which I guess makes me one too, but it’s nice because the suburbs are sprawled across a couple of streetlights and at night it can feel like I’m the only person in the world. Everything was a car ride away except this Little Caesars and I liked to think that we all frequented it to claim a place as ours.
Did you know, even salmon home journey backwards to a safer place when the night begins to carve out the day
Sometimes, they call a river stream an arm, meaning, I would hold this earth’s hand to trail these thousand patterns for you