Vickie Vértiz is the oldest child of an immigrant Mexican family. She was born and raised in Bell Gardens, along the Los Angeles River. Her first full collection of poetry, “Palm Frond With Its Throat Cut,” was published in the Camino del Sol Series by the University of Arizona Press, and won the 2018 PEN America prize for poetry. The prize is for an outstanding book of poetry published in 2017 west of the Mississippi River. She lives in Los Angeles.She attended the Community of Writers in 2014.