Author: Author Elsa Valmidiano

Philippine-born and LA-raised, Elsa Valmidiano is a writer and poet who calls Oakland home. Her works have appeared in literary journals such as Maganda Magazine, TAYO, make/shift, Burner, As/Us, Literature for Life, Bottlecap, Anti-Heroin Chic, Mud Season Review, Yes, Poetry,and Northridge Review, as well as various chapbooks and anthologies such as Field of Mirrors, Walang Hiya, Circe’s Lament, and forthcoming in Precipice. In 2016, she was a finalist for the Rita Dove Prize in Poetry. In 2017, she was a finalist for the Penelope Niven Prize in Creative Nonfiction. Elsa is an alum of the DISQUIET 2017 International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal. This year, she is a Summer Literary Seminars Contest Fellowship Recipient in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was a finalist for the Wilt Chapbook Prize in Creative Nonfiction. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She has performed numerous readings such as at Artists Against Rape, Kearny Street Workshop’s APATURE, Scriptorium, Litquake, Lark Poetry Series, and has been a poetry guest speaker and panelist at several NorCal colleges and universities. You can read more of Elsa’s work at slicingtomatoes.com.