Yuly Restrepo was born and grew up in the city of Medelli­n, Colombia, until her family was granted political asylum in the United States. In 2006, she graduated from the University of Tampa with a Writing major. Later she attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received the Rona Jaffe Fellowship in Creative Writing in 2009. She currently teaches Creative Writing at the University of Tampa and is at work on a novel set in her native Colombia.