Vickie Vértiz on Abundance and Danger in Southeast Los Angeles’ Dirt and Water (PDF) “Y el agua, Chabelita?” I asked.…
Eat the Mouth That Feeds You: City Lights Interview with Carribean Fragoza
You have to read Carribean Fragoza’s debut short story collection, Eat the Mouth That Feeds You. Here’s a photo from…
LA Times Story: Avenue 50 and other Eastside havens from gentrification
Thrilled to have a first feature in the LA TIMES for their literary issue and praise @avenue50studio 💗. For over twenty years, artists and…
Every Day We Get More Illegal: City Lights Interview with Juan Felipe Herrera
In the summer of 2021, I interviewed Juan Felipe Herrera AKA the US Poet Laureate from 2015-17, AKA barrio forest…
KCET Artbound: L.A. Residents Push for More Inclusion in Gehry-Designed Arts Center
After months of conversations with multiple stakeholders, my article on the SELA Cultural Center is now up on KCET’s website.…
KCET’s Artbound: In Bell Gardens, American Legion Hall Post #465 Is an Unlikely Musical Mecca
The American Legion Hall Post #465 has been a gathering place for decades. Read about the Hall’s history, the music,…
April 2021 Readings
Saturday, April 24, 5-6pm PST, Fundraiser reading for poet and writer Dr. Natalie Ann Martinez With Cave Canem Fellows Maya…
Virtual AWP 2021 panel, “The Woven Verse: An Exploration of the Latinx Verse Novel in Kidlit”
Join us virtually at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference! Friday, March 5, 2021, 10 am to…
Toyoteria: Jaime Muñoz’s Apparitions of Faith
Check out my essay as tribute to working class art, to those of us who didn’t see ourselves as artists…
On family violence and waiting for the Big One
“Sometimes, I catch myself wondering if that roll I felt under my feet is the beginning of the end. I look…
“1989 Caprice Classic,” a poem
“Is it talking dirty if you’re just listening? What you see in the picture is me. Passenger Front seat. Cinder…
KCET Story: Third-annual Southeast L.A. River Arts Festival held entirely online
Where else are you going to see a Latinx Bob Ross in huaraches this weekend? And naturally, Beto RosSela (see…
Teaching online? Don’t panic. Seriously.
Originally posted on Dear Reader:
Dear Reader, For this morning’s post, I am addressing it to my fellow academics. My fellow…
AWP 2021 in San Antonio: events!
Join Vickie in San Antonio at these events! Thursday, March 5, 2020, 6pm to 7:30 pm, One Poem Festival Reading:…
Yesika Salgado and I chop it up: video from 2019 LitLit Conference: Latinx/L.A. Poetics
That time when Yesika Salgado and I read two poems and talked: about how we became writers, who we’re in…
Vickie in New York (and Vermont)!
To Collage, To Carry: A Fragmented Essay Writing Workshop, Sat. 8/24, NYC
To Collage, To Carry: A Fragmented Essay Writing Workshop, Sat. 8/24, 10am-12pm ACE Hotel, $40 per person, limited full scholarships…
Upcoming readings: April and May 2019
Join us! All are free events. Friday, April 19, 2019, Skylight Books, 7pm. Book release parties for Kenji Liu‘s _Monsters…
AWP 2019– Portland
Join Vickie for a book signing and cumbia dance party pop-up with poet Heidi Restrepo Rhodes, author of The Inheritance of…
Vickie’s work at the Academy of American Poets, Poem-a-Day
Thanks to the poet and teacher TC Tolbert, my poem “Only We Make Beautiful Things Just to Destroy Them” is up…
2018 PEN America Literary Awards
Recently, PEN America announced the winners of the 2018 PEN America Literary Awards for books of note for writers living…
“How to preserve and maintain our joy”: Vickie on Words on a Wire Podcast, UTEP
Treat your ears and listen to some stories I have on how we can use writing to be self-determined, to…
Radio spot! Borderlands New Wave Poetry at the Tucson Festival of Books
Gracias KXCI 91.3 FM, public radio in #Tucson where you can listen to me and Daniel Olivas read stories about…
South East Los Angeles River Arts Festival, July 21, 2018
Photo: Kency Cornejo After dozens of amazing artists had performed, and following LA bands Quetzal…
“…to not impose understanding or one version of order onto a space that is in the process of its own becoming.” LA Review of Books reads Palm Frond
Absolutely beautiful review of Palm Frond by the LA Review of Books via Isabel Gomez from Umass Boston. Thank you,…
Best Poetry Books of 2017!
At Entropy, Palm Frond also made the list of best poetry collections this year! This list is FIRE, gracias ENTROPY.…
Palm Frond at Remezcla!
At Remezcla, Dr. Ruben Quesada lists Palm Frond with other titles on youth and Latinx identity in the US. The…
Vete a la Chingada, a party and a story (Rabid Oak)
A story about illusion and iluciones after college graduation. “Vete a la Chingada Party“: “I close my eyes and I’m…
New York Times Magazine: “Already My Lips Were Luminous”
Selected by National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes for the New York Times Magazine. “I do not know the language of…
Fierce as Fuck: The Future of Poetry Is Brown & Queer. A BITCH Magazine Interview
From the Harriet Blog, via the Poetry Foundation: At Bitch Magazine: In “Fierce as Fuck: The Future of Poetry Is Brown & Queer,” Soraya…
New on KCET, Youth Resistance and Los Angeles Photography
From my latest article on Artbound KCET: “The week of November 14, 2016, nearly 4,000 students from about 18 schools…
Must-read Trans Canadian Writers
I’m gonna get right to the list in a second here, but I just want to tell you all how…
“Ruda: Ten Remedies,” a play in Anthropoid
Image from Anthropoid website. A tia gives limpias and embroiders magic. A short play published in late December, “Ruda,”…
Hybrid reading/lecture at RaceCraft: A Symposium, Thursday, October 20
RaceCraft: A Symposium: A[…]* genealogy to the contemporary craft movement Barbara And Art Culver Center Of Arts, 3834 Main St., Riverside,…
Writing (US)Americ(k)a(s) with Aja Couchois Duncan, Hugo García Manríquez, Jen Hofer, y Amarnath Ravva
Avenue 50 Studio together with Writ Large Press and and Litmus Press present: Writing (US)Americ(k)a(s) October 15th | 8pm at…
Juan Gabriel: How he helped families love their queer children– in HOY magazine
In Friday’s print edition of HOY magazine in Los ANgeles, reaching thousands of hispanohablantes, I discussed how our working-class immigrant…
From the Stacks at the Poetry Center
Everyone should visit the generous, lovely staff at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Poetry Center. A tremendous…
Macondo Writers’ Workshop 2016– open mic recordings
Thanks to Joseph Rios, here is a sample of the open mic at Macondo Writers’ Workshop 2016 in San Antonio.…
Entropy–adding to an epic poem with epic girl drama
“Susi stopped being my best friend once she got bangs and a hickey. Because I’ve heard her say it, I…
“Conditions” by Jen Hofer– a translation
“— ninety thousand children crossing the border in the last three years what thirst what listening what refuge what desert…
Poetry Center Award, Summer Residency at the University of Arizona, Tucson
Vickie is thrilled to have been selected by Natalie Diaz for the 2016 Summer Residency at the Poetry Center. Stay…
Finally your dreams don’t bite: new poems at Omniverse
I’m the Aztec God of War. Relentless ash, the devil at my elbow. I consume lick-flames hotter than your vieja.…
Southeast Los Angeles writing featured at AWP 2016
Join me as I moderate two panels at the #AWP16 writers’ conference happening in LA this year! Latinx writers…
How Bell Gardens is Banking on Bicycle Club Casino’s Luxury Hotel
The sign illuminates eight lanes of the neighboring 710 Freeway. In contrast to the new monument to luxury, the gritty…
“Tell me a lie, chula. No, darling, not that one”: new poems at The Volta
Read these four new poems just published January 1st at The Volta. This issue was curated by J. Michael Martinez…
Cha Cha Nail Covers Take Over the World
This story is part of KCET Departures’ series of articles and essays on the Informal Economies of L.A. and how…
Allendale Library Reading, Dec. 5, 4-6pm
Dr. Craig’s Poetry Excellence Awards Go To…
Source: Dr. Craig’s Poetry Excellence Awards Go To… More great insight and critique from Dr. Craig (Santos Perez).
Worth Gold: Feminism and Leadership at the Miss Bell Gardens Pageant
Bell Gardens City Council members with the 2015 Miss Bell Gardens Court. Photo: City of Bell Gardens “All the court…
I can defend myself: One mother’s story, a whole community’s struggle
Laverne Cox thinks Zoey Luna rocks and you will too. In this interview, Zoey and her mom, two Downey residents,…
Vickie Vértiz 