Layla Benitez-James

Black woman in a fur hat looking up in the sky
Photo by Carson McHone

Layla Benitez-James is the author of God Suspected My Heart Was a Geode but He Had to Make Sure (Jai-Alai Books, 2017), selected by Major Jackson for Cave Canem’s 2017 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize. Benitez-James has served as the Director of Literary Outreach for the Unamuno Author Series in Madrid and is the editor of its poetry festival anthology, Desperate Literature. Poems and essays can be found at Black Femme Collective, Virginia Quarterly Review, Latino Book Review, Poetry London, Acentos Review, Hinchas de Poesia, and audio essays about translation are available at Asymptote Journal. Benitez-James was a reviewer for Harriet Books in 2021-2022.