Pico attended Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied pre-med with the intention of returning to the reservation as a doctor. He decided not to pursue medicine and moved to New York City, where he worked as a barista in Williamsburg and started writing poetry.[3]
In 2011, Pico was an inaugural mentor in the Queer/Art/Mentors programme;[2][7] in 2013 he was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Poetry.[2][8]
In 2016, Pico's first book IRL was published by the small press Birds, LLC.[9]IRL is written as one long text message, drawing on the epic tradition.[5] Pico's poem was written in first-person narration, from the perspective of Teebs. Teebs is a fictional character writing about fictional events, however, the character parallels as Pico's alter-ego and is used as a nickname.[10]IRL received critical acclaim and was included on best-of-the-year lists for 2016.[11][12] In 2017, it received the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.[13]
Pico's second book, Nature Poem was published in 2017 by Tin House. Nature Poem, like IRL, was written from the perspective of Pico's alter ego and fictional character, Teebs.[14] Pico again used the epic format, in this case to explore and challenge stereotypes of Native Americans as "noble savages" who are one with nature.[15]Nature Poem also received critical acclaim.[16][17][18] Pico followed Nature Poem with Junk in 2018 and Feed in 2019. Pico considers his four books as a series called the "Teebs tetralogy".[19][20]
In 2018, Pico was commissioned to create soundscapes for New York City's High Line park and a walking tour of Seattle for Vignettes Gallery and Gramma Press.[20]
In 2017, Pico's debut IRL received the Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.[13] his second book, Nature Poem, was the winner of a 2018 American Book Award and finalist for the 2018 Lambda Literary Award. He was a 2018 Whiting Award Winner for poetry.[2]
