Kimberly Vargas Agnese

Kimberly Vargas Agnese, author of Kadupul Flower, received Advance Praise endorsement from United States Poet Laureate Emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera, Young Peoples Poet Laureate Emeritus Margarita Engle and California State Poet Laureate Lee Herrick.

Kadupul Flower appeared on the 2025 CLMP list for Hispanic Heritage Month, as well as new release lists from The Philly Chapbook Review,  Latinx in Publishing and Conchas.y.cuentos. During its opening months, the book achieved a third-place ranking on Amazon’s Hispanic American Poetry New Releases list, and also ranked on the Hispanic American Poetry Bestseller list. The title was selected as the December 2025 Book of the Month for the Nature Literature group on GoodReads and has been reviewed by various online outlets.                

Kimberly makes her home in the smoggy California Central Valley. She spends her time cultivating a young food forest called Meadow Arc, praying, and writing advocacy poetry. 
 
A former creative writing instructor, language arts educator, literacy coach and special education teacher, Kimberly served as the founding editor of Jordan Journal. She has been welcomed into several venues for speaking and reading, including the 2025 Fresno Writers Summit and An Awakenings Foundation Reading Night. Plus, she has been invited to lead workshops at UC Merced, Sanger West High School, and the Fresno County Public Library. 

Kimberly was recently spotlighted on Latino Book Review and The Asian Talks, and also garnered a “Block Beat” mention on Fresnoland. Kimberly appears as a featured author on NativeAmericans.org and has been interviewed in Black Fox Literary Magazine, The Rappahannock Review and Hotel by Masticadores.

Over forty of Kimberly’s poems, and two short stories, appear in sundry literary journals and anthologies, including Common Ground Review, Shift Magazine, Anacua Literary Arts Journal and Unstamatic: Newsprint. 

Kimberly’s full-length collection, “Red String on a Saguaro Cactus” was named a finalist for the 2022 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, awarded biannually by the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. To read more of her work, please visit www.kimberlyvargasagnese.com.