Jennifer Jean was born in Venice, California, and lived in foster-care until she was seven. Her ancestors are from the Cape Verde Islands. Her debut poetry collection is The Fool (Big Table); and, her awards include: a 2018 Disquiet FLAD Fellowship; a 2017 “Her Story Is” Residency—where she worked with Iraqi women artists in Dubai; a 2016 Good Bones Prize; and, a 2013 Ambassador for Peace Award for her activism in the arts. Jennifer’s poetry, prose, and co-translations have appeared in: POETRY Magazine, Rattle Magazine, Waxwing Journal, Crab Creek Review, The Common, and more. She is an administrator at The Boston Book Festival, is the director of Free2Write Poetry Workshops for Trauma Survivors (with a special emphasis on sex-trafficking survivors), is on the board of directors for Fort Point Theater Channel, and is the managing editor at Talking Writing. 

For more about Jennifer's co-translations of poetry by contemporary women writing in Arabic (some of which have been published in The Common, Consequence Magazine, Talking Writing, and in a forthcoming anthology she is co-editing, titled "Her Story Is") please visit her website.