Brenda Cárdenas

Brenda Cárdenas was born in Milwaukee. She received a BA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1987 and an MFA from the University of Michigan in 1995. She is the author several chapbooks, two edited anthologies, and the full-length collection Boomerang (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2009). Cárdenas served as the Milwaukee poet laureate from 2010 to 2012. In 2014, the Library of Congress recorded a reading of her work for their Spotlight on U.S. Hispanic Writers. She currently teaches in the creative writing program at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and lives in Milwaukee. In 2025, she was appointed the poet laureate of Wisconsin.