Jessica Guzman was born in southwest Florida to Cuban exiles. She is the author of Adelante (Switchback Books, 2020), selected by Patricia Smith as winner of the 2019 Gatewood Prize. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Shenandoah, jubilat, 32 Poems, Copper Nickel, DIALOGIST, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day Series, and elsewhere.

Her honors include American Literary Review’s Poetry Award, Harpur Palate's Milton Kessler Memorial Prize for Poetry, and the Product Poetry Prize. She is also the recipient of scholarships from the Tin House Winter Workshop, the Poetry Workshop at the Community of Writers, and the Kentucky Women Writers Conference.

Her degrees include a B.A. from the University of South Florida, M.F.A. from West Virginia University, and Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Writers. She chairs Poetry and Poetry Studies for the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association and serves on the masthead of Memorious: A Journal of New Verse and Fiction, having previously worked for Split Lip Magazine, Mississippi Review, Cheat River Review, and VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.

​She is an assistant professor of English & creative writing at Widener University, where she co-coordinates the Creative Writing Program, and lives in Philadelphia.