Zhang Er was born in Beijing, China and moved to the United States in 1986. Her writings in Mandarin have appeared in publications in Taiwan, China, and the American emigre community. The full length collection of her work Seen, Unseen was published by QingHai publishing house of China in 1999.

Her poems have appeared in English in a number of American publications, including The Five Fingers Review, Talisman, River City, First Intensity, Tinfish, The World, Poetry New York, Cross Cultural Poetics and The World. Her chapbooks in translation, Winter Garden (Goats and Compasses), Verses on Bird (Jensen/Daniels) and The Autumn of Gu Yao (Spuyten Duyvil) were published in recent years.

She currently resides in New York City.