Marilynn Montaño

Marilynn Montaño is a Chicana, writer and proud daughter of migrant parents from Puebla, Mexico. Since the age of fifteen, she has been active in her city through writing, spoken word and activism. Her writing highlights the influx of gentrification, housing, police violence, and immigration issues in her community. Her poetry has been featured in Mujeres de Maiz, Seeds of Resistance Flor y Canto Zine, Barrio Writers and Los Angeles Water Works: Histories of Water and Place. Montaño's journalistic work has been featured in the OC Register, Voice of OC, and OC Weekly. In 2013, she received the OC Press Club Award for Best Public Affairs/Education story that she co-authored on housing insecurities in Orange County. Montaño was the Barrio Writers Program Director for five years in Orange County. She was a featured poet on PBS News Hour with her piece titled "His Machucada Hands". Montaño presented in San Francisco and Los Angeles for Lit Crawl in 2017.