Victoriano Cárdenas
Fiction
Albuquerque, NM
Victoriano Cárdenas (he/him) is a trans poet of genízaro & borikén descent from northern New Mexico. He graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2020 with a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry. During the creative writing program at UNM, Cárdenas served as Poetry Editor (2018-19) and Editor in Chief (2019-20) of Blue Mesa Review, as Poetry Editor for Writers Resist, and as Executive Editor for Skull + Wind Press.
Cárdenas’ literary work has appeared in Quarterly West, Conceptions Southwest, Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn, [PANK], Witchcraft Magazine, raspa magazine, and Cloudthroat. He co-wrote the Audible Original: Eminent Domain (2021). His debut poetry collection, ""Portraits as Animal,"" was released in 2023 by Bloomsday Literary Press and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Cárdenas' novella, Casa de Sueños, was selected as the inaugural winner of the Stephen Graham Jones Horror Novella Prize, and is forthcoming from Subito Press. Cárdenas has also written for Meow Wolf, developing narrative elements and characters that will be featured in the Los Angeles exhibit, set to open in late 2026. He currently lives in Albuquerque with his dog, Dio, writing horror screenplays.