Vanessa Ramos was born in El Paso, Texas and raised in Minnesota. She is a recipient of the Jesse H. Jones Dobie Paisano Fellowship from the Texas Institute of Letters and The University of Texas, a ManyVoices residency at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, a Loft Mentor Series Award in Nonfiction, and most recently, an Artist Initiative grant through the Minnesota State Arts Board. Her work has appeared in BorderSenses, 1110, and elsewhere, and she is co-editor of Writing El Norte: A Compendium of Latinx Writing from the Midwest, forthcoming from Minnesota Historical Society Press in 2019. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University in Saint Paul and teaches composition and creative writing in the Twin Cities.