Bermudez grew up in various parts of the United States, and after graduating high school at age 16, she moved to Russia, where she worked as a music translator and with the Afghan refugee population in Moscow.

[14][16] In interviews, Bermudez has talked about the loss of her parents at a young age, and has described "writing, like mourning, [as] a constant negotiation between the political and the personal.

[20] Her debut book was called a "must-read" by Publishers Weekly[21] and was described by Anthony Marra as "an absolutely brilliant collection, so of the moment formally and politically yet timeless in its pursuit of human contradiction.

[23][24] As a writer, Bermudez's work has been noted to focus on "intersections of power, privilege, and place," with characters who subvert traditional ideas of literary protagonists.

[27][28][29] Bermudez co-wrote the film My Dead Friend Zoe, which premiered at South by Southwest in 2024, with director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes.