Gwendolyn Zepeda was born in Houston, Texas and attended the University of Texas at Austin. She was the first Latina blogger and began her writing career on the Web in 1997 as one of the founding writers of the entertainment site Television Without Pity. Since that time, Zepeda has published three critically acclaimed novels through Hachette, four award-winning children's books through Arte Publico Press, a short-story collection, and two books of poems.

She was Houston's very first poet laureate, serving a two-year term from 2013 to 2015. Zepeda lives in Houston with her family and pets.