Mindy Nettifee is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer and award-winning performance poet from Long Beach, California. She has competed in five National Poetry Slams, opened for indie rock acts the Cold War Kids, Meiko and Emily Wells, and curated events for the Smithsonian, the city of Los Angeles, GirlFest, the Drums Inside Your Chest and more. She is the author of two books of poetry, Sleepyhead Assassins (Moon Tide Press) and Rise of the Trust Fall (Write Bloody Press), a nominee for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is also the co-founder and director of Write Now Poets.