Octavio Quintanilla

Octavio Quintanilla holds a PhD from the University of North Texas. He is the author of three poetry collections: Las Horas Imposibles | The Impossible Hours (University of Arizona Press, 2025), co-translated with Natalia Treviño and the winner of the 2024 Ambroggio Prize; The Book of Wounded Sparrows (Texas Review Press, 2024), long-listed for the National Book Award; and If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014). His poetry and Frontextos can be found in public spaces, such as San Antonio’s Labor Plaza and Poet’s Pointe Park. His visual work has been exhibited in numerous spaces, including the Mexican Cultural Institute in San Antonio, Texas, El Paso Museum of Art, Southwest School of Art, Presa House Gallery, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, and the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, Texas.   

Quintanilla is also the recipient of the Nebrija Creadores Scholarship, which allowed him a monthlong residency at the Instituto Franklin at Alcalá University in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. 

The founder and director of the literature and arts festival, VersoFrontera, and the founder and publisher of Alabrava Press, Quintanilla is also the former poet laureate of San Antonio, having served from 2018–20. He teaches literature and creative writing in the MA/MFA program at Our Lady of the Lake University.