Viva Padilla is a bilingual poet, writer, artist, and editor born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. She’s the founding editor in chief of Dryland an independent and grassroots print literary journal and Hombre Lobo, an intergenerational book series documenting paranormal/supernatural stories experienced by Xicanx. She runs FUTURE NOW, a Los Angeles Black & Brown virtual reading and open mic series that features past contributors of Dryland. Padilla is also the owner of Re:Arte Centro Literario, a bilingual bookstore and art gallery in Boyle Heights.
She’s been an invited speaker at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Fullerton, and Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba (2019 & 2020). Viva’s work has been featured in the L.A. Times, PBS, The Acentos Review, Cultural Weekly, PANK, SAND Berlin, Exposition Review, and wearemitú. Her writing was recently featured in Every. Thing. Changes. a summer art exhibition by L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, L.A. Poets in Place by The Autry Museum, and XLA Poets, an anthology of Los Angeles poetas . Forthcoming work includes her first poetry collection.
Viva is a first-generation Chicana, a daughter of immigrants who crossed the border from Colima, Mexico. She dedicates her work to the memory of her grandmother Magdalena Padilla (R.I.P.), who as a young woman dreamt of becoming a writer and the sacrifice made by both of her parents.
She currently works at Re: Arte Centro Literario and lives on the Eastside in Los Angeles. She digs chilaquiles, liquor, traveling solita, books on architecture, spooky stories and Mexican music history.
