2025 VIPF FEATURED POETS
Featured Poets of the 18th Annual Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival 2025
(Apr. 24- Apr.27, 2025)
Amanda was born and raised in Pharr, Texas. She has always held a strong work ethic, which has given her the opportunity to work in many different avenues. Amanda turned her youthful stubbornness into a reality that required a lot of work, change, and dedication. She grew up expecting nothing for herself, but she always wanted and strived for more. Amanda beat the odds by changing her mentality and perspective. By focusing on changing her outlook and access, she grew to love working in marketing for the music and television entertainment industry, where she combined her local survival skills and introduced them to the national stage, working for several companies such as Telemundo, Advertir, Puro Tejano TV, Cennarium, and Wall Street. Amanda currently lives in Pharr, TX, and has published 11 books. On October 29th, she brought poetry to a TEDx stage. She has also been nominated for the 2025 State of Texas Poet Laureate appointment by the State of Texas Arts Commission.
Tezozomoc is a Los Angeles Chicano Essayist, Poet and 2009 Oscar Nominated Activist, internationally published and has been published by Amoxcalco Books for “I am not your Chihuahua”, and by Floricanto Press, “Gashes!: Poems and Pain from the halls of injustice”, a collection of poetry, ISBN-13: 978-1951088040, 9/2019. Featured nationally and internationally across zoom open virtual mics. Published in many lit journals/anthologies.
Trier Ward is a mother, poet, and scientist. She grew up as an Air Force brat living around the world, and has lived in Albuquerque, NM since 2015. She performs at several open mics in the area, including Voices of the Barrio. Her other interests include the arts, social activism, and wildlife rehabilitation. She currently volunteers as a wildlife caretaker at a non-profit wildlife rescue.
She has had three collections of poetry published: The Art of Escape (Hercules Publishing 2024), The Hollowscape (Penhall Publishing 2016), and Bruises and Love Bites (Penhall Publishing 2014).
Writer and Artist Victoria Montes was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to McAllen, Texas when she was five years old. Her work has been published in Scribbles Literary Magazine and Gallery Student Literary Magazine for UTRGV. She was a journalist and published extensively in that newspaper.