Rachelle Escamilla is a Chicana poet from California’s Central Coast and the author of Imaginary Animal (Willow Books), Me Drawing a Picture of Me[n], and Space Junk from the Heavenly Palace (Nomadic Press/Black Lawrence Press). She is the 2024–2025 Poet Laureate of Monterey County and a recipient of the 2025 Denis Diderot Grant supporting a residency at Château d’Orquevaux in France. Escamilla’s work has been featured at institutions including Stanford University, UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, City of Asylum, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History. A former visiting scholar at the Library of Congress, she has published scholarship in English, Spanish, and Mandarin and is the founder of multiple literary and cultural programs in the U.S. and abroad.