Omar Pimienta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCSB, where he teaches Transborder Cultural Production and Creative Writing. He has published four books of poetry: El Álbum de las Rejas (Ediciones Liliputienses. Cáceres, España, 2016, translated and reedited as Album of fences, Cardboard House Press. Phoenix, Arizona U.S. 2018); Escribo desde aquí (Pre-Textos. Málaga, Spain, 2010); La Libertad: Ciudad de paso (CECUT, México. 2006) Primera Persona: Ella (Anortecer, México. 2004. His fifth poetry manuscript just won the first international prize La Industrial, Huelva, Spain, 2024. He has also published a compilation of short stories Té. (RIL Editores Barcelona-Santiago, España-Chile. 2019).  His work as a visual artist was awarded an Art Matters Grant in 2017,  it has been shown at the 3ème Biennale Internationale de l'Art Contemporain de Casablanca Maroc; the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time LA/LA, 2017-18; the 5th Transborder Biennial in El Paso/Ciudad Juarez; and the 2023 Mexicali Biennial. From 2019 to 2022, he was a Member of the Mexican Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte in the Area of Poetry, and in 2022 a Poetry tutor for that year’s cohort of young fellows of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA). He currently is a Hispanic Serving Institution /UC President’s Postdoctoral / Mellon Faculty Fellow, 2023-2024.