Yvette Thomas was born in Los Angeles and has lived most of her life in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a Master of Creative Writing from the University of Auckland (2023). In 2022 Thomas won the Caselberg International Poetry Prize for her poem ‘Not What You Wanted’, which featured in Landfall 244 (Spring 2022) and the anthology No Time To Lollygag (Caselberg Press 2023). Her short story ‘The Lost One’ was published in JAAM 19 (2003) and Pendulum (Wishbone Press, Australia, 2003). Thomas is also the winner of the Kendrick Smithyman Scholarship in Poetry 2023 and the Shimon Weinroth Prize in Poetry 2023.