mónica teresa ortiz is a poet and critic born, raised, and based in Texas. they have been a visiting researcher with the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (2022), an artist-in-residence with UT Austin’s Planet Texas 2050 initiative (2021-2022) and are currently an Uproot Project Environmental Justice fellow. mónica’s poetry includes muted blood (2018) from Black Radish Books, autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist (2019) from Host Publications, and Do You Dream of Flamingos? (2023), winner of the Garden Party Collective Chapbook prize and selected by fellow Texas poet Laura Villareal. Their work has been published in Scalawag Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and Fence.