A Chicana poet, educator, and organizer, Karla Cordero is a descendant of the Chichimeca people of northern Mexico and was raised along the borderlands of Calexico, California. She wrote the chapbook Grasshoppers Before Gods (Dancing Girl Press, 2016) and the full-length collection How to Pull Apart the Earth (Not a Cult, 2018), which won the 2019 San Diego Book Award and was a finalist for the 2019 International Latino Book Award. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a 2021 California Arts Council Established Artist Fellow, she teaches composition and creative writing at MiraCosta College and San Diego City College. She founded the spoken-word showcase Voice 4 Change.
