The Chicano/Latino Literary Prize (55 page)

Lucha Corpi
, née Luz del Carmen Corpi Constantino, was born in Jáltipan, Veracruz, Mexico. In 2005, she retired after thirty-one years of teaching in OUSD's Neighborhood Centers Adult School. Corpi is the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts in poetry, the PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the Multicultural Publishers Exchange Award for her fiction. She is the author of two collections of poetry, a children's book, and five novels. Three of her novels feature Gloria Damasco, a Chicana private detective. Her new bilingual children's book,
The Triple Banana Split Boy/Diente Dulce
, is to be published by Piñata Books in 2008. She is currently working on her fourth Gloria Damasco mystery,
Death at Solstice
, and a collection of personal essays,
The Orphan and the Bookburner
. Corpi lives in Oakland, California.

Carlos Nicolás Flores
was born in El Paso, Texas. Flores was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at Dartmouth College. He currently teaches English at Laredo Community College. Flores's most recent publication is a young adult novel entitled
Our House on Hueco
, published by Texas Tech University Press (2007).

Reymundo Gamboa
was born in Anthony, New Mexico, and raised in Lamont, California. He was the 1990 winner of the Silver Poet Award and served as Chair of English at Ernest Righetti High School, Santa Maria, California. His poetry has been published in the
American Anthology of Contemporary Poetry
and
New Voices in American Poetry
. Gamboa was a resident of Santa Maria, California, until his passing in 2001.

Juan Felipe Herrera
was born in Fowler, California. Herrera enjoys writing in collectives and for magazines and tabloids. He has served as editor and coeditor for over ten journals and he has founded various performance troupes such as Teatro Tolteca (1971), Poetashumanos (1978), Troka (1983), Teatro Zapata (1990), and Manikrudo (1994). Herrera has received numerous awards such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, Chicano Award and has been inducted into the Latino Literary Hall of Fame. His most recent publication is
187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border: Undocuments, 1971-2007
(2007). Herrera teaches at California State University at Fresno.

Gary D. Keller
is Regents' Professor and Director of the Hispanic Research Center at Arizona State University. He most recently co-authored
Chicano Art for Our Millennium: Collected Works from the Arizona State University Community
. Keller is the General Editor and Director of Bilingual Review Press/Editorial Bilingüe.

Alberto Ledesma
was born in Huisquilco, Jalisco, Mexico, but he was raised in East Oakland, California. Currently, Ledesma works as the Writing Program Coordinator for UC Berkley's Student Learning Center. In addition to academic essays on Mexican immigrant literature, Ledesma has published poetry and prose in
Berkeley Poetry Review, Con/Safos,
and in Gary Soto's
Chicano Chapbook Series
. He is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled,
Secrets of a Wetback Warrior
. Ledesma resides in Castro Valley, California.

Graciela Limón
is a native of Los Angeles, California. She is the recipient of the Before Columbus American Book Award (1994) and the Myers Book Away Award (2002). Currently, she teaches as a Visiting Professor at UCLA and UCSB. Her winning entry was published under the title
In Search of Bernabé
(1993). Her most recent book projects include
Erased Faces
(2001),
El Día de la Luna
(2004),
Left Alive
(2005), and she is currently working on
Despiérten, Hermanos!
Limón resides in Simi Valley, California.

Jack López
was born in Lynwood, California. He received First Place Winner for Best Literary Short Stories from the Chicano Literary Hall of Fame as well as Special Mention by the Pushcart Prize. López was also the recipient of the National Hispanic Scholar Award. He is Professor of English at CSU Northridge. He has authored
Snapping Lines
(2001). His winning story was part of his autobiography,
Cholos: A Latino Family Album
(1998). López resides in Redlands, California.

Josefina López
was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, but she has lived in Los Angeles County, California since the age of five. Her plays have been produced over one hundred times and include
Real Women Have Curves
(1996),
Unconquered Spirits
(1997)
, Simply María, or America's Dream
(2004)
, Confessions of Women from East L.A.
(2004), and
Food for the Dead
(2004). She has written screenplays including
Lotería for Juárez, Add Me to the Party,
and
No Place Like Home
. López won the Gabriel García Márquez Award, and the Humanitas Award for Screenwriting. She was also awarded a Screenwriting Fellowship by the California Arts Council in 2001. In 2007, López completed her first novel
Hungry Woman in Paris
. López teaches writing to local youth at her CASA 0101 space in Boyle Heights, California.

Demetria Martínez
was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She graduated from Princeton University after which she decided to dedicate her life to social activism, journalism, and the writing of fiction. She is the author of
Border Wars
(1985),
Turning
(1987),
Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry
(1989),
Breathing Between the Lines
(1997),
The Devil's Workshop
(2002),
Confessions of a Berlitz-tape Chicana
(2005), and the award-winning novel
Mother Tongue
(1994).

Rubén Benjamín Martínez
lives in Los Angeles, California, and has worked as a writer and editor for
LA Weekly Magazine,
where he became the first Latino on staff. He has since worked as an essayist for National Public Radio and as TV-host for
Life and Times
for which he won an Emmy award. He co-authored
Flesh Life: Sex in Mexico
(2006) and
East Side Stories
(1998). His book
The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City and Beyond
was published in 1993. Currently, Martínez holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing at Loyola Marymount University. He is also an accomplished musician and has recorded with Los Illegals, Concrete Blonde, and The Roches.

Rubén Medina
was born in Mexico City in 1955 and came to the United States in 1978. He has lived in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, where he has worked as a gardener, bus boy, cook, laborer, construction worker, Spanish instructor and professor of literature. Currently, he is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Director of the Chicana/o Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he teaches and researches on modern Mexican and Chicana/o literature. He is the author of
Amor de Lejos …: Fools' Love
(1986), which was a finalist in the 1984 Casa de las Américas Literary Prize held in Cuba. He is completing a book of poetry entitled,
Nomadic Nation: Nación nómada
. His research publications include
Autor, autoridad y autorización: Escritura y poética de Octavio Paz
(1999) and several articles on Mexican and Chicano literature and film.

David Meléndez
. No information available.

David Nava Monreal
is a three-time winner of the CLLP Contest. His short stories have appeared in numerous journals, including
Saguaro, Bilingual Review, The Americas Review, Q-Vo,
and
Firme
, among others. He wrote two books of short stories,
The New Neighbor and Other Stories
(1987) and
A Season's Harvest
(1998). He is also a novelist and a writer of non-fiction and published
Cinco de Mayo: An Epic Novel
(1993). Monreal lives in Lake Forest, California.

Andrés Montoya
's work has appeared in various literary journals, including
The Santa Clara Review, In the Grove, Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe,
and
Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets
. His various occupations included field hand, ditch digger, canner, ice plant worker, and writing teacher. His
The Iceworker Sings and Other Poems
(Bilingual Press, 1999) won the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 2000. He was born on May 18, 1968, and died on May 26, 1999, at the age of 31.

Carlos Morton
was born in Chicago, Illinois. Morton taught as a Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1989-90, and again, at the Marie Curie-Sklodowskiej University in Poland, 2006-2007. He was inducted into the Writers of the Pass in El Paso, Texas, in 1999. Morton was the First Prize Winner of the National Hispanic Playwriting Contest for the Arizona Theater Company in 1995. His most recent publications include
Dreaming On a Sunday in the Alameda
(2004) and
Children of the Sun: Scenes and Monologues for Latino Youth
to be published in 2008. Morton is Professor of Theater at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He resides in Santa Barbara, California.

Michael Nava
was born in Stockton, California, and raised in Sacramento. Nava is a gay-rights activist as well as a novelist. His books include
The Little Death
(1985),
Goldenboy
(1988),
Finale
(1989),
How Town
(1990),
The Hidden Law
(1992),
Created Equal: Why Gay Rights Matter to America
(1994), and
The Death of Friends
(1996). He currently lives in San Francisco, California, where he practices law.

Angelo Parra
, a New Yorker, is an award-winning playwright with production credits in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Florida, and at the Edinburgh International Festival. The critically acclaimed
The Devil's Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith
won him the New York
Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship and was named Best Solo Show in South Florida in 2001. In addition to the CLLP Prize,
Song of the Coquí
won the 1998 American Dream Prize. Parra also wrote the award-winning
Casino
and
Journey of the Heart
. He was selected a Tennessee Williams Scholar for the prestigious Sewanee Writers Conference in 2000. Parra teaches playwriting and theater at Ramapo College of New Jersey and is the Founder/Director of the Hudson Valley Professional Playwrights Lab.

Mike Padilla
was born in Oakland, California, and currently lives in Los Angeles, California. His novel
Hard Language
was published by Arte Público Press (2000). Padilla works as a Writer for Campaign Operations at UCLA.

Terri de la Peña
was born in Santa Monica, California. Her current occupation is Senior Administrative Analyst at UCLA, where she has worked since 1986. In 1999, she wrote
Faults: A Novel
, published by Alyson Books, and a children's alphabet book
A is for the Americas
co-authored with Cynthia Chin-Lee. “A Saturday in August,” one of her stories for which she won first prize in the CLLP was published in
Finding Courage
edited by Irene Zahava (1989). De la Peña resides in Santa Monica, California.

Mary Helen Ponce
was born in Pacoima, California. She earned advanced degrees at California State University, Northridge, and at the University of New Mexico. She works currently as a Freelance Writer and Consultant and lives in Sunland, California.

Manuel Ramos
was born in Florence, Colorado. He holds degrees from Colorado State University and a law degree from the University of Colorado. He won the Colorado Book Award (1993), the Law Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement (1996), the Jacob V. Schaetzel Award (1998), and the Chris Miranda Award (2004). He continues to practice law and is the Director of Advocacy for Colorado Legal Services. His recent publications include
Moony's Road to Hell
(2002),
Brown-on-Brown
(2003), and a short story “The 405 Is Locked Down” to be published in
Latinos in Lotusland
(2008). Ramos's winning novel
The Ballad of Rocky Ruíz
was published by St. Martin's Press in 1993, and a new edition was reprinted in 2004 by Northwestern University Press. Ramos resides in Denver, Colorado.

Luis J. Rodríguez
is the author of several award-winning books, poetry, children's literature, memoir, nonfiction, and fiction. He is a columnist for
The Progressive Magazine
and editor of Tía Chucha Press and
Xispas
, an online Chicano magazine. He currently lives in San Fernando, California.

Elaine Romero
was born in Santa Rosa, California, and raised in Orange County, California. Romero won a play commission from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/White Historical Association for
Xochi: Jaguar Princess
and a second commission from the Alley Theater for
Something Rare and Wonderful
(Houston, Texas). She was also named TCG/Pew National Theater Artist in Residence for the Arizona Theater Company, where she wrote
Before Death Comes for the Archbishop
and
Secret Things.
She wrote
Barrio Hollywood
during her tenure at NEA/TCG Theater Residency Program for Playwrights at the San Diego Repertory Theater. Her most recent publications include
Secret Things
(2007),
A Simple Snow
in
The Best 10-Minute Plays for 2 Actors
(2007), and
Voices in First Person: Reflections on Latino Identity
(2008).
Walking Home
was published in
Ollantay Theater Magazine
(1996). Romero lives in Los Angeles and Arizona.