VANESSA ANGÉLICA VILLARREAL was born in the Rio Grande Valley to Mexican immigrants. She is the author of Beast Meridian: Poems (Noemi Press), which received a Whiting Award, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award nomination, and the Texas Institute of Letters John A. Robertson Award. She was a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and her work has appeared in Nouvèl Èdikay, Harper’s Bazaar, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her son.