THE POET & WRITER (1994 – present)
A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, John T. Trigonis (he/him) has been a staple in the NY/NJ performance poetry scene since the mid-1990s. His work has been published in dozens of (mostly) print journals, literary magazines, and university presses, including The Evansville Review, Home Planet News, Ellipsis, Poetry Salzburg, The Chaffin Journal, The Main Street Rag, Harpur Palate, Iodine Poetry Journal, The Homestead Review, The California Quarterly, Barbaric Yawp, and The Brooklyn Review. He has also had work published online at Empty Mirror and The Good Men Project.
He has self-published a slew of poetry chapbooks: Hotel Edwards Drunken Cubist Forest, Androids with angel faces; Fifth Avenue Bomb in the Covergirl Heart; the Warehouse City trilogy; and What Great Stars and Other Poems; and the upcoming Shooting Stars, Splitting Skies is set to drop in 2024.
Trigonis is also seeking a publisher for his first tome of poetry, Old ‘89 and Other Bangers.
Aside from poetry, Trigonis has written two issues of an original comic book called Siren’s Calling, over a dozen book proposals, short and full-length screenplays, short and flash fiction stories, countless journals, articles on sites like Retrofied, Lamplighter (at which he also served as culture editor), and EIGHTY, where he served as editor on the final two issues of the magazine.
And, of course, Trigonis holds the obligatory MFA in poetry writing from CUNY’s Brooklyn College which is why he is able to teach English composition, creative writing, and public speaking courses at New Jersey City University and Hudson County Community College. (Though he has taught at a plethora of others, such as William Paterson University, Berkeley College, Fairleigh Dickinson University, just to name a tight trio.)
THE FILMMAKER (2004 – 2013)
Trigonis also spent a span of almost ten years as an independent filmmaker, writing his own (mostly) short films and shooting them digitally. He has served as screenwriter, director, director of cinematography, video and sound editor, and his films have gone on to screen at various local and international film festivals including Jersey City’s own Golden Door Film Festival, Indie Spirit Film Festival, Flyway Film Festival, Staten Island Film Festival, the NYC Downtown Shorts Film Festival, and the Cannes Short Film Corner.
THE CROWDFUNDING GURU (2010 – 2020)
Being a filmmaker and crowdfunding his short film Cerise launched Trigonis into the brave new world of crowdfunding. He is the author of Crowdfunding for Filmmakers: The Way to a Successful Film Campaign, which was published by Michael Wiese Productions in 2013 and a second edition in 2016. From 2013 to 2018, Trigonis was Indiegogo’s Film & Creative Campaign Strategist, advising many of the highest funded campaigns like Super Troopers 2, Code 8, Con Man, Iron Sky: The Coming Race, Miles Ahead, Dragon’s Lair Returns, Life Itself, and What We Left Behind.
THE SHOPKEEP (2021 – present)
Since 2021, Trigonis serves as co-owner with his partner Marinell Montales and booksmith of Sure Things, a vintage shop/used bookstore located in Jersey City Heights. He is also the MC of WAYE: A Poetry Reading Series that happens every last Wednesday of the month at the shop.
JOHN T. TRIGONIS 