JAYE KRANZ is an award-winning poet, documentary audio producer, musician, and writer based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people. 

A recipient of the Emerging Writers Grant from the Australia Council’s for the Arts (now Creative Australia) and the Queens Trust Fund (for Writing), she won the 2025 Plaza Prize for Poetry (judged by Natalie Diaz), was shortlisted for the 2024 Tom Colins Poetry Prize, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2025.

She has poems published or forthcoming in West Branch, Verse Daily, The Cincinnati Review, Best of Australian Poems 2024, The Florida Review, The Marrow International Poetry Journal, Frozen Sea, Foglifter and Cordite Poetry.

Her commissioned audio features have aired on BBC Radio 4 (Short Cuts and Lights Out), BBC Radio 3 (Between The Essays), on numerous flagship documentary shows nationally across Australia’s ABC RN grid, on NPR, WBEZ, Re-Sound, Constellations podcast and the Third Coast Audio Festival ‘Special Feature’ podcast.

Her BBC feature ‘Deep Time and the Sparrowhawk’ won two gold awards at the 2019 New York Radio Festival Awards for ‘Best Documentary’ and’ ‘Best Sound’.

She has published a novella with Random House (in the company of three other novellas), published in short story collections (Picador, Vintage, and Angus & Robertson), and the Australian Book Review. She writes occasional nonfiction for The Monthly; has ruminated on questions for The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing & Ideas, and was a screenwriter for LA-based film company Plan B Entertainment.

She has appeared at the Melbourne Writers Festival, the Emerging Writers Festival, and the Next Wave Festival, among others. Jaye has been a guest-presenter at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and the International Audiocraft Festival & Conference; she has mentored in audio storytelling; was a mentor-producer for the podcast Braided, and has hosted and produced various nonfiction writers' festival events, including the twice-sellout Melbourne Writers Festival nonfiction storytelling event The Radio Hour. Her audio pieces have been taught in schools and universities, and played at listening events and podcast festivals around the world.

Under the moniker Brighter Later, Jaye wrote and self-produced the full-length album The Wolves (and follow-up single Brace), earning her a nomination for the prestigious Australian Music Prize. She was also nominated for Best Emerging Artist at The Age/Music Victoria Awards. As front-woman for the Melbourne outfit, she has supported the likes of Martha Wainwright and Calexico (USA) and played venues including the Sydney Opera House and Brisbane’s Tivoli Theatre.

Beyond broadcast /podcast work, Jaye has made commissioned work for the Melbourne Arts Centre, the State Library of Victoria. and the audio-ephemera podcast Constellations (a project that made IndieWire’s Top 50 Podcasts of 2020).

She has been a member of the New York Radio Festival Grand Jury, and a judge of the Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship.