Biography

Amanda Nevarez is a Chicana poet, filmmaker, photographer, Reiki Master, and mother based in Altadena, California. Her work explores the emotional terrain of memory, survival, and transformation, moving fluidly between poetry, film, photography, and healing practice. Drawing from lived experience, ancestral connection, and the aftermath of loss, Amanda creates across mediums to speak the quiet truths we carry but rarely name.

Her debut poetry collection The Poetic Murder of My Love is a raw and lyrical excavation of betrayal, longing, and emotional ruin. Her follow-up, Death of the Songbird, continues that journey through fragmented memory, tenderness, and the echoes that remain. Her writing is deeply personal and spiritually charged, inviting readers to feel what is often buried or ignored.

In addition to her literary work, Amanda is a filmmaker and screenwriter with a background in event production. She is currently developing original film projects including the psychological thriller The Fifth Room and the autobiographical series Life, Unscripted. Her stories are rooted in identity, place, and the complicated beauty of survival.

A former media director for Eaton Fire Residents United, Amanda helped elevate community voices around environmental justice and displacement in the wake of the 2023 fire. Though no longer in a formal role, her advocacy continues through her writing and platform.

Amanda is also a certified Reiki Master, holding space for spiritual and energetic healing in the same way she does through her art. Whether writing poems, building stories, creating images, or raising her children, her work remains guided by a single intention: to speak the unspeakable and honor what lingers beneath the surface.

You can explore her poetry, creative projects, and latest offerings at www.amandanevarez.com or through her newsletter at voicesfromtheburnzone.substack.com.