Writing the Wilding

Lizbeth Bárcena is a writer, naturalist, and architectural designer from Southern California, currently pursuing an MFA in Nature Writing at Western Colorado University. Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, she grew up in a quiet San Joaquin Valley town in Alta California. A desert lover at heart, you’ll find her in desert canyons and washes volunteering for the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and nonprofits in the Colorado and Mojave Deserts. A 2026 Literary Award Winner for Tucson Festival of Books in nonfiction, a recipient of the 2025 Mari Sandoz Emerging Writer Scholarship, and a Semi-Finalist for the 2024 North American Review Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Contest. Her work has appeared and is forthcoming in Permafrost Magazine, The San Diego Poetry Annual, Witness Magazine, Burningword Literary Journal, and El Portal. She is currently working on a nonfiction collection that explores the desert landscape through lyrical and experimental essays.