Leslie Contreras Schwartz is a multi-genre writer born in Houston, Texas, with Mexican American roots going back several generations in Texas. She earned a BA from Rice University and an MFA from Warren Wilson College. A member of the Macondo Writers' Collective, her work examines the individual and public body, centering the voices of those historically silenced and the lived complexities of identity, place, and belonging. She is the author of five collections, including Fuego (Saint Julian Press, 2016), Nightbloom & Cenote (2018), Black Dove / Paloma Negra (FlowerSong Press, 2020), and The Body Cosmos (2023). She served as Houston Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2021 and received a 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.