Jayne Cortez was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, and grew up in California. She is the author of ten books of poems and has released nine recordings of her poetry with music. Cortez has presented her work and ideas at universities, museums, and festivals in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States. She is the recipient of various awards, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the International African Festival Award, The Langston Hughes Award, and the American Book Award. Her books of poetry include The Beautiful Book (2007), Jazz Fan Looks Back (2002), and Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere (1996). According to Maya Angelou, “Cortez has been and continues to be an explorer, probing the valleys and chasms of human existence. No ravine is too perilous, no abyss too threatening for Jayne Cortez.” Her latest CD recordings with her band, The Firespitters, are Find Your Own Voice (2007), Borders of Disorderly Time (2003), and Taking the Blues Back Home (1997). Cortez is organizer of the conferences “Slave Routes the Long Memory” and “Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writer Dissecting Globalization,” both held at New York University. She is president of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, Inc. and is featured in the films Women in Jazz and Poetry in Motion. She currently lives in New York City.