Wendy C. Ortiz
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wendyortiz.com
Wendy C. Ortiz
@wendyortiz.com
2.7K followers 960 following 5.1K posts
Excavation: A Memoir
Hollywood Notebook: Essays
Bruja: A Dreamoir
Northwestern University Press, 2025

Mommy’s El Camino is my weekly newsletter.

she/her. Los Angeles.

https://linktr.ee/wendy.c.ortiz
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wendyortiz.com
I did a search for “deer” in my photos app
Coco, a MinPin Chihuahua mix, stands in full sun on the grass. There’s a shadow at the bottom of the frame.
January 23, 2026 at 2:37 AM
wendyortiz.com
Not my cat, but my friend who sometimes visits my backyard, and whose person is always calling for him at nightfall.
A big black and white cat sits in front of a small heap of soil on a sparse lawn. A clay pot that looks like a funny little guy in the lower right. Trees and foliage in the background.
January 20, 2026 at 10:43 PM
wendyortiz.com
Have you ever seen a bigger pig in a blanket
A white plate on which lies an enormous pig in a blanket: a long sausage, wrapped, but not completely, in dough. There are 6 toothpicks with onion and pickle speared on the sausage. A big dollop of mustard and a small knife with a bright green handle share the plate. Some hands, one holding a crayon drawing on the white paper table cover are in the background. A yellow plate with a fork and knife, the plate smeared with white, is also in the background, alongside an orange and white napkin.
January 19, 2026 at 5:17 PM
wendyortiz.com
2016: cheap sunglasses, same hopeful message (rest in piss patriarchy)
Woman on a peak in Griffith Park with two braids, wired earbuds, sunglasses, t-shirt that reads RIP PATRIARCHY. In the background is Los Angeles.
January 16, 2026 at 6:32 PM
wendyortiz.com
With code NEWYEAR you get 50% off books at Northwestern University Press through January 3, 2026❣️

Excavation: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014860...

Hollywood Notebook: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014858...

Bruja: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014856...
A bouquet of green, yellow, and white flowers and the books Excavation, Hollywood Notebook, and Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz
December 29, 2025 at 4:48 PM
wendyortiz.com
Abundant mail 💛 with thanks to @eireannmor.bsky.social
A brown envelope, opened, and one print newsletter and print zine, Abundant Number, on a table covered in yellow flowered oilcloth
December 26, 2025 at 2:45 AM
wendyortiz.com
There’s been a lovely break between storms.
patchy clouds with tiny glimpses of blue
December 25, 2025 at 7:53 PM
wendyortiz.com
New ornament this year in honor of the friend who likes to run up and down the top of our fence.
A Christmas tree ornament of an opossum hanging upside down in the tree.
December 25, 2025 at 4:09 AM
wendyortiz.com
🥴
a view from the Hollywood Freeway of the lit up Xmas tree atop the Capitol Records building that is most definitely off-center
December 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM
wendyortiz.com
unabashed juniper lover
a petite bottle of St. George Dry Rye Gin on a colorful red and yellow flowered oilcloth
December 21, 2025 at 7:24 PM
wendyortiz.com
A peach-colored knit object shaped like a small bulb with two bead eyes and a smile hanging on yarn on a tree.
December 18, 2025 at 2:09 PM
wendyortiz.com
🙂
a small knit object that is shaped like a light bulb, strung on yarn on a tree. It’s pink and has two bead eyes and a little smile
December 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM
wendyortiz.com
I heard @nupress.bsky.social books are 50% off with code NEWYEAR right now.

a big green bow + these books = great gift 💚💚💚

Excavation: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014860...
Hollywood Notebook: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014858...
Bruja: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014856...
The books Excavation, Hollywood Notebook, and Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz on a wood table
December 17, 2025 at 4:19 PM
wendyortiz.com
And it’s special to me that I’ll be reading three poems of Kevin’s, from his collection Padam Padam, tonight in Los Angeles with many others who knew him and love him 💕
A pink background with a pixelated portion of Kevin Killian’s face, close-up. Text reads: DODIE BELLAMY TOM COMITTA HEDI EL KHOLTI AARON KUNIN JOSEPH MOSCONI BRADFORD NORDEEN WENDY C. ORTIZ PAGE PERSON JEANETTA RICH JACK SKELLEY FRANCES STARK KAYLATANGE CHRIS:ZEISCHEGG READ KEVIN KILLIAN PADAM PADAM COLLECTED POEMS DECEMBER 12 7PM POETIC RESEARCH BUREAU
December 12, 2025 at 7:18 PM
wendyortiz.com
read everything Dodie has written, with all of her mentions of Kevin, and so I felt a bit starstruck. And special. Kevin made me feel special.
Kevin Killian and Wendy C. Ortiz in Chinatown, LA, 2017.
December 12, 2025 at 7:18 PM
wendyortiz.com
Wendy in a black bathing suit drinking a beer, cigarette in mouth, slathered in mud from a previous bout. Grass, trees, and a bunch of punks in the background. Late 1990s, Olympia, WA. Wendy with yellow sunglasses and a black bathing suit drinking, dripping with mud. 1998? 1999? Olympia, WA.
December 11, 2025 at 9:23 PM
wendyortiz.com
A flyer with handwritten text and two women, one in a wrestling outfit, the other in a long dress and heels. Text reads: YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW HER... • • • THEN YOU SAW HER IN THE PIT! ALL WOMEN WELCOME TO WRESTLE! ALL GENDERS WELCOME TO ATTEND. THE EMPHASIS HERE IS ON FUN — NOT ATHLETIC ABILITY. COSTUMES, PERSONAS, RIVALRIES, ETC, ARE OPTIONAL BUT ENCOURAGED. WE NEED WOMEN OF ALL AGES, SIZES AND ABILITIES. TRANS WOMEN ARE WELCOME AS WELL. * NEED A LITTLE PRACTICE? * COME TO THE TEA. FRIDAY JULY S1. MEET OTHER WRESTLERS FIND AN OPPONENT-FYIU DONT HAVE ONE IN MIND, SET USED TO THE MUD (BRING A TOWEL:) YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN OPPONENT ANY PARTICIPA- TION IN A "TOURNAMENT" WILL BE TOTALLY OPIONAL. PLEASE LET US KNOW AHEAD OF UF TIME ATTENTION: BOYS: WE NEED YR BOOTIE ON THE GO-GO STAGE IN BETWEEN / DURING MATCHES. PLUS: ALSO : OPEN TO OTHER IN- BETWEEN MATCHES ENTERTAINMENT, CALL US! iF YOU WANT WRESTLE. EVEN IF YOU LANT MAKE THE TEA. * THIS IS A BENEFIT FOR OAPP THE GIVE IT UP FUND (FOR MOMS - KIDSS.) YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO S0 WHY NOT? WRESTLING LEGEND MS. FISTAN TAKES HOME THE BELT
December 11, 2025 at 9:19 PM
wendyortiz.com
Since I’m up in the archives ~ scenes from the late 1990s
A small hand-drawn flyer that reads Olympia WOMENS MUD-WRESTLING $3 @ 4pm AUG 1st SEXISTS MISOGYNISTS HOMOPHOBES STAY HOME! One wrestler with dark hair and a tattoo that says FLASH with a lightning bolt is grabbing the head of another wrestler who winces in pain.
December 11, 2025 at 9:19 PM
wendyortiz.com
This Friday night in Los Angeles at Poetic Research Bureau/2220 Arts + Archives
On a magenta background that is a pixelated photo of Kevin Killian close-up DODIE BELLAMY•TOM COMITTA HEDI EL KHOLTI AARON KUNIN JOSEPH MOSCONI • BRADFORD NORDEEN WENDY. C. ORTIZ PAGE PERSON JEANETTA RICH JACK SKELLEY FRANCES STARK KAYLA TANGE CHRIS ZEISCHEGG READ KEVIN KILLIAN PADAM PADAM COLLECTED POEMS DECEMBER 12 7PM -POETIC RESEARCH BUREAU
December 8, 2025 at 7:41 PM
wendyortiz.com
I honestly think buying my books as a SET would make a reader in your life very happy/angsty/overwhelmed/jolted/aroused/grateful/satisfied.
Put a green bow around it 💚

Excavation: bookshop.org/p/books/exca...

Hollywood Notebook: bookshop.org/p/books/holl...

Bruja: bookshop.org/p/books/bruj...
Three piles of books by Wendy C. Ortiz on a wood table. Each pile has a copy of the book facing out: Excavation, Hollywood Notebook, and Bruja.
December 1, 2025 at 6:42 PM
wendyortiz.com
Related: flashback to that time on Twitter when someone I didn’t know asked if this was me in their footage of the WTO protests on 11/30/99. (Yes, it was me, before I masked up with what I had on me to deal with the tear gas.)
An old tweet showing three stills from a video from 11/30/99 WTO protests Seattle. “@WendyCOrtiz Is this you?”
December 1, 2025 at 4:49 PM
wendyortiz.com
Kevin Killian and I, Los Angeles, 2017.
Kevin Killian and Wendy C. Ortiz, Chinatown, LA 2017. Photo by Dodie Bellamy.
December 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
wendyortiz.com
Honored to be reading the work of Kevin Killian 💘 Friday 12/12 at 7pm 💗 PRB Los Angeles
DODIE BELLAMY. TOM COMITTA HEDI EL KHOLTI AARON KUNIN JOSEPH MOSCONI BRADFORD NORDEEN WENDY C. ORTIZ PAGE PERSON JEANETTA RICH JACK SKELLEY FRANCES STARK KAYLA TANGE CHRIS ZEISCHEGG READ KEVIN KILLIAN PADAM PADAM COLLECTED POEMS DECEMBER 12 7PM POETIC RESEARCH BUREAU
December 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
wendyortiz.com
Me & one of my Aries exes at the WTO protest in Seattle, 11/30/99. I made photocopied holiday cards that year with this photo 🕊️
A black and white photo with captions in gold cursive that read “have a smashing holiday and a peaceful new year.” The selfie features a tall person wearing a jacket, bandanna, and goggles inext to a person with short dark bangs wearing a cheetah head hat with ears, a scarf over her mouth, goggles, and rain jacket.
November 30, 2025 at 3:05 PM
wendyortiz.com
Re: taking risks on books large publishers wouldn’t. My book Excavation was rejected by ~30 traditional publishing editors before a small press (@futuretensebooks.bsky.social) picked it up. It went on to sell about 10k copies before I sold it to @nupress.bsky.social.
In terms of what they publish, small presses see within the wider publishing landscape market-led tendencies towards sameness and repetition, tendencies that they counter through the production of a diverse and imaginative literature. They are vital for the literary ecosystem in that they take risks on books that larger publishers would not; champion genre-bending and innovative forms of writing; pour time and energy into supporting emerging and overlooked writers; are dedicated to publishing books in translation; and tend to publish far more writers from minoritised backgrounds due to their networks, openness to writers from non-traditional literary pathways, and submissions processes. They are also dedicated to expanding the boundaries of the visual form of books through original approaches to design, layout and printing - despite the costs of complex typesetting.
November 21, 2025 at 8:22 PM