[1] She earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology in 1992 from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University (now the Weill Cornell Graduate School), while simultaneously immersing herself in the New York poetry scene, where she wrote poetry, hosted bilingual readings, and edited literary journals.

[2] She now teaches at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and continues to write poetry.

[3] Zhang Er's work has been published online and in print in China, Taiwan, and the United States.

Moon in the Mirror, for which she cowrote the libretto in collaboration with Martine Bellen, has been performed in Flushing, Queens, and at Cleveland State University.

[10][11] Zhang Er's opera Tacoma Method, with music by composer Gregory Youtz, takes on the titular city's expulsion of Chinese residents in 1885.