Poet, essayist, editor, and teacher Dana Maya was born and lives in what Américo Paredes called “Greater Mexico”—a space transcending geopolitical, cultural, linguistic, & creative borders. She descends from a line of single Mexican mothers and was educated at Vassar College & the University of Texas at Austin, with an orientation in Chicanx, Queer, & Race Studies. She has taught literature & writing at UT Austin, Madison College, schools, & community organizations. She collaborates with artists on projects for social change, facilitates ekphrastic poetry happenings, & is a member of the Spontaneous Writing Booth Collective. Her poems and essays have garnered awards & appear in anthologies, journals, buses, stages, museums, memorial sites, & other public spaces.