Maritza N. Estrada was born in Toppenish, Washington, to Mexican parents, and raised in Omaha, Nebraska. She earned her BFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where she received a full academic scholarship as a Buffett scholar. Estrada is currently residing in Tempe as an MFA candidate in Creative Writing (Poetry) and teaches at Arizona State University. She is the Poetry Editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review and is the Co-Artistic Director for Borderlands Poetry and Reading Series at ASU. Estrada is a 2020 CantoMundo fellow. Her honors and awards include the 2019 Virginia G. Piper Creative Research Fellowship, 2019 Virginia G. Piper Creative Engagement Fellowship, winner of the Aleida Rodriguez Memorial Award, Mabelle A. Lyon Poetry Award, Swarthout Award in Poetry, alumna in the 2019 Tin House Winter Workshop and 2018 Winter Tangerine workshop at Poets House. Her work can be found in Pidgeonholes, Blue Mesa Review, Río Grande Review, The Flat Waters Stirs: An Anthology of Emerging Nebraska Poets, Misbehaving Nebraskans Anthology, and 13th Floor Magazine.