Author: Elsa Valmidiano

Elsa Valmidiano is a Philippine-born, LA-raised, Oakland writer and poet. She prefers you pronounce her last name as her ancestors intended: /väl-mĭ-jänō/. She has lived in various places such as San Diego, New Zealand (Aotearoa), DC, Syracuse, and the Philippines, as well as traveled to Australia, Fiji, Bali, Hawaii, Ireland, Germany, Canada, Puerto Rico, Portugal, and Georgia (Sakartvelo). Small pieces of her claim those places as home too. She also wishes she knew how to slice tomatoes like her mother.