Jessica Piazza was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently a PhD candidate in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California.  She began her poetry career as an undergraduate intern at The Favorite Poem Project in Boston, and continued on to co-found the Speakeasy Poetry Series in New York City, Bat City Review at the University of Texas at Austin and Gold Line Press at USC.  She is a contributing editor at The Offending Adam and has blogged for The Best American Poetry and Barrelhouse.  Among other places, her poems have appeared in The National Poetry Review, Agni, Indiana Review, 32 Poems, The Missouri Review, Mid-American Review, Rattle, Forklift Ohio, and the anthologies 150 Contemporary Sonnets (U. of Evansville Press) and Hot Sonnets (Entasis Press).