MARCELO HERNANDEZ CASTILLO was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and crossed the border through Tijuana with his family at the age of five. He is a Canto Mundo fellow and the first undocumented student to graduate from the University of Michigan’s M.F.A. program. He teaches at Sacramento State University and the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. He cofounded the Undocupoets campaign which successfully eliminated citizenship requirements from all major first poetry book prizes in the country and was recognized with the Barnes and Noble “Writers for Writers” award from Poets and Writers magazine. His first full-length collection, Children of the Land, is forthcoming from HarperCollins.