Isabel Duarte-Gray was born in Oakland, California and raised in a trailer in Kuttawa, Kentucky. She She received her B.A. in English and Russian from Amherst College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University, where she studied Latinx Literature, Poetry, and Ecocriticism. Her first poetry collection, Even Shorn, debuted in 2021 with Sarabande Books. She lives in New Orleans and teaches at Loyola University New Orleans.