Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1987 (age 38–39) Riverside, California, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Riverside (MFA) |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Notable work | I Don't Want to Be Understood |
| Website | joshuajenniferespinoza |
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza (born 1987) is an American trans woman poet from Riverside, California.[1][2] Her poetry collection I Don't Want to Be Understood (Alice James Books, 2024) was a finalist for the 2026 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.[3]
Life and career
Espinoza discovered the work of Langston Hughes in middle school and later developed her writing through blog culture in the 2000s.[2] She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside and has taught creative writing at Occidental College.[4]
Her work has appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere.[2][5][6]
Espinoza's first chapbook, i'm alive / it hurts / i love it, was published by Boost House and later reissued by Big Lucks Books in 2019.[2] Her later collections include There Should Be Flowers (2016), Outside of the Body There Is Something like Hope (2018), and I Don't Want to Be Understood (2024).[2][7]
Espinoza's poem "Death Before Detransition", published in Boshemia Magazine, was later incorporated into Andrew Yee's 2025 Trans Requiem, an orchestral composition.[8][9]
Themes and reception
Reviewers have described Espinoza's poetry as centering trans womanhood, especially in relation to erasure, visibility, and survival. In There Should Be Flowers, according to Blackbird, the speaker moves through "a world that insists on the erasure of trans voices"; Dorothy Chan wrote that I'm Alive. It Hurts. I Love It. places "the queer trans woman's voice" at its center; and a Poetry Foundation review wrote that I Don't Want to Be Understood explores life "in a world that rejects the mere notion of transness".[10][11][12]
I Don't Want to Be Understood was also a finalist for the 2025 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry and the 2025 Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature.[13][14][3]
Bibliography
- i'm alive / it hurts / i love it. Boost House, 2014. ISBN 9780996069113
- There Should Be Flowers. Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016. ISBN 9781937865733
- Outside of the Body There Is Something like Hope. Big Lucks, 2018. ISBN 9781941985830[15]
- I'm Alive / It Hurts / I Love It (2nd ed.). Big Lucks, 2019. ISBN 9781941985304[16]
- I Don't Want to Be Understood. Alice James Books, 2024. ISBN 9781949944631[17]
References
- ^ "Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ a b c d e "Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ a b "Finalists". Tufts Poetry Awards. Claremont Graduate University. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "40.1 Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". The Southeast Review. March 30, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". The Poetry Project. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "Alice James Books Welcomes Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". Alice James Books. April 8, 2022. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ Simonovis, Leonora (August 2024). "I Don't Want to Be Understood". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "ISSUE 06 // DISTANCE". Boshemia Magazine. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "Dignity for Every Voice". Trinity Church. November 20, 2025. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ Pruyn, Cassie. "Review | There Should Be Flowers by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". Blackbird. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ Chan, Dorothy. "Every poem is arguably an ars poetica: Review of Joshua Jennifer Espinoza's I'm Alive. It Hurts. I Love It.". Amie Whittemore's Meter Reader, University of Southern Indiana. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ Simonovis, Leonora (August 6, 2024). "I Don't Want to Be Understood". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "Announcing the Finalists for the 37th Annual Lambda Literary Awards". Lambda Literary. July 30, 2025. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "2025 Publishing Triangle Awards Finalists Announced". The Publishing Triangle. March 2025. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "Outside Of The Body There Is Something Like Hope - Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". Big Lucks Books. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "I'm Alive. It Hurts. I Love It. - Joshua Jennifer Espinoza". Big Lucks Books. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
- ^ "I Don't Want to Be Understood". Alice James Books. Retrieved March 19, 2026.