B. 1992
Jzl Jmz, a Black woman with blonde hair, crossing her arms, wearing a rust-bleached lace & satin gown, in front of a grey wall with windows & decals

Photo by Nel Ison

Jzl Jmz is a Transsexual, Black Los Angelena, based in Portland, Oregon. She’s the author of Local Woman (Nightboat Books, 2025), The Black Condition ft. Narcissus (Nightboat, 2019), winner of the 2019 Poetry Center Book Prize, and Mannish Tongues (Platypus Press, 2017). She’s the editor of Bettering American Poetry (Vol. 2) (Bettering Books, 2017) & A Portrait in Blues (Platypus Press, 2017). She has been a Lambda Literary Fellow, & Precipice Art Grant Recipient through Portland’s Institute for Contemporary Art.