Wendy C. Ortiz was born and raised in Los Angeles. She is the author of Excavation: A Memoir (Future Tense Books, 2014), Hollywood Notebook (Writ Large Press, 2015), and the dreamoir Bruja (CCM). In 2016 Bustle named her one of “9 Women Writers Who Are Breaking New Nonfiction Territory.” Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the National Book Critics Circle Small Press Spotlight blog. Her writing has appeared in such venues as The New York Times, Joyland, StoryQuarterly, and a year-long series appeared at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Her “Urban Liminal” series of texts appear alongside signature graphic representations of the projects of Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects in the book Amplified Urbanism (2017). Wendy is a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles.
Wendy is a recipient of a Tin House writing residency (Fall 2022) and two writing residencies at Hedgebrook (2007 and 2009). In 2015 she adapted a short play from her essay “Spell” for One Axe in collaboration with and directed by Meera Menon (Farah Goes Bang, Equity).
Wendy has read and spoken at a number of universities including UC San Diego, UCR Palm Desert Low Residency MFA, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, UC Santa Barbara, Eastern Illinois University, CSU Chico, CSU Fresno, Santa Monica College, Northwestern University, Riverside Community College, and the University of San Francisco.
The Special Collections and Archives Department at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville Campus invited Wendy to archive personal materials in their Living Writers Archive in March 2017. Wendy’s zine from the 1990s, Freefeeder, is archived at the Ruel Gaviola Zine Collection at University of California at Santa Barbara; Bowling Green State University; SUNY at Buffalo; and Yale University.
(author photo credit: Monica Orozco, demonica photo)
Twitter: @WendyCOrtiz
2021 Interview for LitCit: Antioch’s Literary Citizen Podcast
2021 Virtual Author Conversation: Wendy and Emma Copley Eisenberg
9 Women Writers Who Are Breaking New Nonfiction Territory in Bustle
Discussion of Excavation and Hollywood Notebook by Lesley Heiser in The Rumpus
Jessica Dewberry profiles Wendy for Los Angeles Review of Books