Javier Sandoval grew up in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico, but later immigrated to Wisconsin (where his mother sent him to kindergarten every day in a cowboy hat). He then moved to Texas (falling for its blues and badlands) and North Carolina (living in a shelter for three years). 

After building a startup invested in by Microsoft, he attended Brown University on its full-ride Leadership Endowed Award, where he studied creative writing under Forrest Gander, C. D. Wright, and John Wideman; co-authored 2 Billion Under 20 (St. Martin’s Press); and published his first book of fiction, a literary gang-thriller, Cicada, Ladybug (Thought Catalog Books). 

He’s now a Graduate Council Fellow at the University of Alabama’s MFA program, where he teaches and serves as Poetry Editor of Black Warrior Review. His own poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Indiana Review, Salt Hill, Folio, Anti-Heroin Chic and The Madison Review, among others.

You can follow him on IG for updates and jokes @JavierWantsCandy.