Interlocutor Goddess (CAAPP Book Prize)

“Jasmine Reid writes a shapeful, theoretical work involved in the rigorous attending to emergent selves and the languages made in calling them into being.” —aracelis girmay

Interlocutor Goddess explores the creation of a trans language for selfhood within an exilic state of "ecstatic grief."

Reid's experimental work challenges societal norms, particularly the family as a political construct while reflecting on the trans experiences of a queer Black woman. The poems grapple with oppressive systems of separation and colonial legacies, rejecting extractive, empire-driven paradigms, and gender essentialism. Within her collection, Reid envisions alternative, ethical ways of being, rooted in unity and wholeness and finds kinship with the rhythms and lifeways of the natural world—soil, stars, and water. 

Her poetry employs a trans-lyricism, weaving together dual meanings through homonyms, homophones, and portmanteaus to create a layered, fugitive language that resists rigid classifications. At its core, Interlocutor Goddess is an act of transfiguration, a celebration of girlhood, and a reclamation of wholeness for all who exist beyond imposed boundaries.

Jasmine Reid is the author of Interlocutor Goddess (Autumn House Press, forthcoming), winner of the 2024 CAAPP Book Prize, and the chapbook, Deus Ex Nigrum (Honeysuckle Press, 2020). An MFA graduate of Cornell University and a 2025-2028 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow recipient, she also received fellowships from Cave Canem and Poets House, and her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Triquarterly, among others. Reid was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, where she is an assistant professor at NYU.