Local Woman - Paperback

by Jzl Jmz (Author)

WINNER of the 2026 Publishing Triangle Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature
FINALIST for the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry

A pulpy, mytho-poetic dispatch from an "anarchist jurisdiction" that explores the liberatory possibilities of community and womanhood.

Enter: Local Woman, an archetypal figure, fresh from the forest into the streets of Portland, Oregon. She is a Black trans woman, seeking survival and satisfaction, giving seduction, disenfranchisement, and the contradictions of femme womanhood a face, body, and soul. In sensual, evocative lyrics, Jzl Jmz documents Local Woman's movement through natural disaster, anti-fascist protest, romantic engagements, and an expanding sense of personal autonomy.

Author Biography

jzl jmz (FKA Jayy Dodd) beamed down in Los Angeles '92 and is reuploading herself to the internet. She is the author of Mannish Tongues (2017) and The Black Condition ft. Narcissus (Nightboat Books, 2019). She edited Bettering American Poetry Vol. 2 (2017) and A Portrait in Blues (2019). She has been a Lambda Literary Fellow, a Precipice Art Grant Recipient through Portland's Institute of Contemporary Art, and Artist-in-Residence at Ori Gallery, and her film and performance works have been installed & screened across the country. She lives in Portland, Oregon.