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) & teaches at Arizona State University. She is the 2020 – 2021 Artistic Development & Research Assistant for the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at ASU, created by MacArthur Fellow Natalie Diaz. Estrada is a 2020 CantoMundo Fellow. Her honors and awards include the 2019 Virginia G. Piper Creative Research Fellowship & 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 & 2018 Winter Tangerine workshop at Poets House. Her work can be found in The Offing, Pidgeonholes, Blue Mesa Review, Río Grande Review, The Flat Waters Stirs: An Anthology of Emerging Nebraska Poets, Misbehaving Nebraskans Anthology, & 13th Floor Magazine.