Victor Hernández Cruz was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico and began writing as a teenager in New York City. Cruz completed his first collection of verses, Papo Got His Gun, and Other Poems (1966), in his teens and published Snaps (Random House) at age 20. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Beneath the Spanish (Coffee House Press, 2017); In the Shadow of Al-Andalus (Coffee House Press, 2011); The Mountain in the Sea (Coffee House Press, 2006); and Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000 (Coffee House Press, 2001), which was selected for the shortlist of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and the International Griffin Poetry Prize. Cruz's poetry has been translated into French, Greek, Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Catalan, Japanese, and Swiss, and he has read his work in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Jordan, France, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Spain, and Morocco.

Cruz is the recipient of numerous awards including a Fulbright Scholarship, the Guggenheim Fellowship and the New York Poetry Foundation Award. Cruz divides his time between Morocco and Puerto Rico.