Lolita Hernandez's poetry and fiction draw from the rhythms and language of her Trinidad and St. Vincent heritage, and are tempered by 33 years as a UAW worker, 21 of them at the Cadillac Plant in Detroit. She is the author of Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories From the Cadillac Plant, which won a 2005 PEN Beyond Margins Award. She is also the author of two collections of poems: Quiet Battles and Snakecrossing. Her work appears in many literary publications, and she reads from her works in the Detroit area and nationally.

Hernandez taught creative writing at the Western Wayne Correctional Facility and compiled the resulting work into an anthology entitled Gittin Down: Profiles from Michigan Prison Writers. She has also taught creative writing at the Wayne State University Labor School, sociology and composition at the Detroit College of Business, as well as Diversity in Society online for Davenport University. She works for the UAW in the UAW-GM Quality Network. Hernandez has an M.F.A. in creative writing from the Vermont College of Norwich University, a B.A. in journalism from Wayne State University, a B.A. in psychology from the University of Michigan; and a UAW journeyman card in Experimental Product Engineering Layout and Assembly. She is an active member of UAW Local 160.