A proud daughter of immigrants, Michelle Peñaloza was born in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan and grew up in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee. She is the author of two chapbooks: landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias Press, 2015) and Last Night I Dreamt of Volcanoes (Organic Weapon Arts, 2015). Her poems and essays have been featured in Waxwing, Poetry Northwest, New England Review, Off Paper, Vinyl, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of fellowships from the University of Oregon, Kundiman, and the Richard Hugo House, awards from Literary Arts, 4Culture, and Artist Trust, and scholarships from VONA/Voices, the Napa Valley Writers' Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, among others. Michelle lives in rural Northern California.