Vickie Vértiz was the Lucille Clifton Scholar at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley in 2015 and a finalist for the Gabriela Mistral Poetry Prize in 2014. Her writing can be found in the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Offing, the James Franco Review, and in Open the Door from McSweeney’s and the Poetry Foundation. Her first collection of poetry, Swallows, was published in 2013 by Finishing Line Press. She lives in Los Angeles.