Mertz has published poems in Guernica Magazine, Room Magazine, ARC Poetry Magazine, Fence, American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. They were honored to serve as a City of Asylum Emerging Poet Laureate Finalist from 2019-2020. Their first book of poems, CU T, will be released this year. CU T is “visceral and cutting, vulnerable and brave” (Craig Santos Perez), “astonishing” (CA Conrad), and a debut “that will stay with you forever” (Kirby). Their first book, a memoir entitled BURNING BUTCH, was a finalist for Memoir Magazine’s Grand Prize for Memoir and was also celebrated by Chicago Review of Books, Los Angeles Review of Books, and others. They’ve published a short play about top surgery and January 6 in Another Chicago Review. Their second memoir in progress, Boy or Girl, has received an Established Writers Grant from Toronto Arts Council.