Safia Jama was born to a Somali father and an Irish American mother in Queens, New York. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, she has published poetry in Ploughshares, Boston Review, World Literature Today, Prairie Schooner, and Poem-a-Day. Her poetry has also been featured on WNYC's Morning Edition and CUNY TV's Shades of US series. Jama is the author of Notes on Resilience, included in the New Generation African Poets Chapbook box set (Akashic Books, 2020). She is a lecturer in the English Department of Baruch College, City University of New York.