Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro was born on 29 October 1970 in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and was raised by her grandparents, Petronila Cartagena and Saturnino Pizarro [REF].
In 2011, Salón Literario Libroamérica de Puerto Rico selected Arroyo's new book Caparazones, as the best new novel and the same year she was awarded a writer-in-residency grant by the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.