juj e. lepe is a Mexican-American poet from Northern California. Their debut chapbook, Your Name Means Solitude, was selected by francine j. harris for the 2026 Robert Phillis Chapbook Prize and is forthcoming with Texas Review Press. juj has received support from Blue Mountain Center, the Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where they earned an MFA in Poetry.

juj is a freelance writer, editor, curator, illustrator, film photographer, and lover of small hand-bound books. They live in Chicago.