Von Diaz is a writer, documentary producer, and author of Coconuts & Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South. 

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Atlanta, GA, she explores food, culture, and identity. In addition to her debut culinary memoir, she has contributed recipes and essays to a number of cookbooks and anthologies. Her forthcoming book, ISLAS: Cuisines of Resilience (scheduled for publication by Chronicle Books in spring 2023) explores the cuisines of islands across the globe, and the ways they are connected through their use of ancestral cooking techniques. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, StoryCorps, Food & Wine Magazine, and Bon Appétit, among many others. 

In addition, she also teaches food studies and oral history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and is a member of the Journalism Committee for the James Beard Foundation. 

Von received a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Agnes Scott College. She went on to receive a dual M.A. in Journalism and Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University, where she completed a Tinker Field Research Fellowship to record oral histories of elder LGBTQ communities in Havana, Cuba.