Vickie Vértiz is the oldest child of an immigrant Mexican family. Her writing is featured in the Academy of American Poets, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the San Francisco Chronicle, Huizache, and the Los Angeles Times, among many others. She is the author of Auto/Body, winner of  the 2022 Sandeen Prize from the University of Notre Dame. Her book Palm Frond with Its Throat Cut won the 2018 PEN America literary prize in poetry.  A fellow with the Mellon Foundation, VONA, CantoMundo, and Macondo, Vickie teaches writing at UC-Santa Barbara. She lives on Tongva and Gabrielino land in Los Angeles.