Aleida Rodríguez was born on a kitchen table in Güines, Havana. Her poetry and prose have been published in many literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies nationwide, including In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction (W.W. Norton, 1996), The Spoon River Poetry Review (whose Editors’ Prize she won in 1996), Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and The Kenyon Review. She has been a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and the Brody Arts Fund. She lives in Los Angeles.