Wendy C. Ortiz
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wendyortiz.com
Wendy C. Ortiz
@wendyortiz.com
2.7K followers 950 following 4.8K 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
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
wendyortiz.com
have some clouds
blue sky with sparse bits of gray cloud, like dirty cotton candy fragments, some scattered white becoming more diffused in the upper right
November 14, 2025 at 3:43 AM
wendyortiz.com
If there are any survivors of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of men in powerful positions reading this amid the avalanche of posts about Epstein, and you have not read my book Excavation, dm me. I have two copies I’d be happy to send. I hope you’re taking care as the timeline unfolds.
The cover of Excavation: A Memoir by Wendy C. Ortiz
November 13, 2025 at 7:44 PM
wendyortiz.com
It was 9 yrs ago today that I launched the first edition of BRUJA. I invited a witch to come invoke a spell, and friends read from the book alongside me. This year @nupress.bsky.social reprinted the book with its gorgeous new cover.

Enjoy this 2016 photo of me saying wtf to my child mid-shenanigan
A person, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, on the left, is dressed in blue as The Ocean, smiling at the top of a child’s head. I’m making a face at the child while holding a plastic cup of red wine. Scene is at Skylight Books, where I’m signing the first edition of Bruja, Nov. 6, 2016. The cover of BRUJA: A DREAMOIR by Wendy C. Ortiz
November 6, 2025 at 7:08 PM
wendyortiz.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:01 AM
wendyortiz.com
Get HOLLYWOOD NOTEBOOK for 40% off with discount code HAUNTED 10/31 and 11/1
nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014858...
The cover of HOLLYWOOD NOTEBOOK by Wendy C. Ortiz
October 31, 2025 at 7:57 PM
wendyortiz.com
Happy Halloween 🎃 Today (10/31) and tomorrow (11/1) you can get any/all of my books for 40% off with discount code HAUNTED from @nupress.bsky.social.
Buy EXCAVATION for 40% off: nupress.northwestern.edu/978081014860...
A beige background. A green silhouette of Wendy smoking a cigarette. The spines of the books BRUJA, HOLLYWOOD NOTEBOOK, and EXCAVATION by Wendy C. Ortiz are under the silhouette.
October 31, 2025 at 7:57 PM
wendyortiz.com
That moon 🌓 ✨
A closer look at two different palm trees with the blue sky as backdrop. There’s that moon, between the biggest tree’s fronds.
October 31, 2025 at 12:37 AM
wendyortiz.com
Then I panned out and realized
Palms and other trees. The largest palm tree in the background looks like it’s cupping the moon between its fronds.
October 31, 2025 at 12:37 AM
wendyortiz.com
I was out here trying to document the new palm frond I’m watching
Amid palms and other trees, a light green palm frond is just starting to open.
October 31, 2025 at 12:37 AM
wendyortiz.com
40% off all 3 of my books, and any @nupress.bsky.social books, with discount code HAUNTED, today through November 1st 🍁🎃💀👻
Three separate piles of books with each of the book covers facing out. Excavation Hollywood Notebook, and Bruja by Wendy C. Ortiz
October 30, 2025 at 3:09 PM
wendyortiz.com
post-candy corn races, at least the kids are all old enough now that they’re not eating them off the floor
a tin can painted candy corn colors full of candy corn, with candy corn scattered around it on a wood porch
October 27, 2025 at 1:23 AM
wendyortiz.com
The last time I was here trucks were pulling in with all the wood to make these steps. And today
Wood trail steps going up a hill, chaparral.
October 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
wendyortiz.com
I’m BACK 🌞
A view of downtown Los Angeles from across the city. Blue skies with sparse clouds.
October 23, 2025 at 4:37 PM
wendyortiz.com
Beautiful book mail! The latest by @mbsycamore.bsky.social
A hand is holding Terry Dactyl by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore in front of a bougainvillea
October 21, 2025 at 4:52 PM
wendyortiz.com
tossing scary lemon into the timeline 👻🍋👻
a contorted lemon that resembles a hideous face
October 21, 2025 at 3:52 AM