Natalie Diaz was born in Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California and is Mojave.
She earned a BA and a MFA from Old Domionion University.
Her first novel, When my Brother Was an Aztec, was published in 2012 and was awarded the 2012 Lannan Literary Selection and the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award shortlist.
Her honors and awards include the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry from Bread Loaf, the Narrative Poetry Prize, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship.
Her work appeared in Narrative, Poetry magazine, Drunken Boat, Prairie Schooner, Iowa Review, and Crab Orchard Review.
She currently lives in Mohave Valley, AZ where she directs a language revitalization program and works with the last Elder speakers of the Mohave language.