Margarita Cruz received her MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Arizona University. She serves as President of the Northern Arizona Book Festival, columnist for Flagstaff Live!, Mountain Living, and the Arizona Daily Sun and is a part time educator. When she’s not reading, writing, or building community, she is often out hiking in the high desert she has found a home in. Her works have been supported by Tin House Writer’s Workshop, Torrey House Press’ Voices for the West workshop, Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop and Macondo Writers Workshop. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2022, she can be found or is forthcoming in Rattle, DIAGRAM, and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem A Day among other spaces. In 2021, she published her first chapbook, Amerixana, with Ignite Press out of Chatham University’s MFA program.