Mariana Oliver was born in Mexico City in 1986. She received her master’s in comparative literature from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and is the recipient of a Fundacíon de Letras Mexicanas grant for essay writing. In 2016, she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Ensayo Joven José Vasconcelos for Aves migratorias (Migratory birds), from which “Özdamar’s Tongue” comes.