Black Mestiza

Yael Valencia Aldana is an Afro-Latinx poet and writer. Yael, her mother, her mother's mother, and so on are descendants of the indigenous people of modern-day Colombia. Her work has received the Pushcart Prize, been nominated for Best of The Net, and has appeared in Stone Coast Review, South Cutbank Literary Journal, and Literary Mama, among others. She is the author of the chapbook Alien(s) and serves as a guest editor at Craft Literary, Palette Poetry, and Frontier Poetry. Yael teaches creative writing in South Florida, where she lives with her son and too many pets.