MT Vallarta (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, disabled, Filipinx poet. They are an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where they teach classes rooted in anti-imperialism, queer of color critique, disability justice, and creative expression. They are hard at work on a research monograph titled, Dismantle Me: Queer, Mad, and Anti-Imperialist Filipinx Poetry, that explores the radical tradition of Filipinx poetry written by artists who are queer, trans, mad, and/or disabled.

A Kundíman Fellow, Roots. Wounds. Words. Fellow, and Pushcart Prize Nominee, they are the author of What You Refuse to Remember (2023), winner of the 2022 Small Harbor Publishing Laureate Prize. They are also the author of the microchapbook, The Science of Flowers (2021), published by Blanket Sea. Their work is published and forthcoming in The Selkie, Shō, Madwomen in the Attic, Nat. Brut, Apogee, and others. They were a poetry reader for Harbor Review.

Previously, they were the 2021-2023 Guarini Dean’s Pre-to-Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian American Studies at Dartmouth College. They received their Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Riverside. They were raised on the unceded territorities of the Tongva people, in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles. They are based on Chumash land, in CA’s Central Coast.