Publication

2008 Raw Silk Suture, Floricanto Press, excerpts featured in OCHO, February 2008
2007 La Bloga, and Blogcritics.org, online literary criticism, book reviews,
interviews, cultural commentary (http://labloga.blogspot.com, and http://blogcritics.org)
2006 Sister Chicas, Penguin/NAL
(written with Ann Hagman Cardinal and Jane Alberdeston Coralin)
2004 Mexico, 90 days and counting, poetry, Derriva, journal, Mexico City, D. F.
2000 Dark Water Speaking, poetry, Editor
1999 Housekeeper's Diary, poetry

Awards

• Hispanic Author of the Year, 2009, State of Illinois
• Winner, Mariposa International Award for Best First Novel in English, (2nd Place)
Latino Literacy Now, 2007.
• Awarded full writer's residency and scholarship, Ledig House International Writer's Residency, Art/Omi International Arts Center in 2006.
• One of ten artists selected from a pool of 250 applicants, awarded a
Regional Artists Program Grant from The National Endowment for the Arts in 1996.
• One of five artists receiving a City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs
Community Arts Assistance Program Grant three years in a row, 1995, 1996, 1997,
with an additional award in 1999.
• Awarded full writer's residency and scholarship, Ragdale Foundation in 1995.

Education
B.A. in Writing Vermont College
M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts Goddard College Vermont

Work Experience:

2008/2009 Adjunct Faculty, English Department/Columbia College Chicago
2008 Adjunct Faculty, English Department/North Park University
Designed syllabus for and taught the following: Introduction to Poetry and Introduction to Creative Writing, respectively. Syllabi covered both survey courses and writing instructional intensives. Conversant with Oasis and Blackboard interfaces.

1995-present: Founder & Publisher, La Onda Negra Press, Chicago IL La Onda Negra is an award-winning Chicago-based independent press exclusively devoted to expanding the local and national markets for the work of women writers of color. Responsible for project development, project management, editing, layout and design, national marketing and promotion. Secured in depth profiles and interviews in The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Latino USA/NPR; in addition to six interviews/readings for 848/NPR, through press releases, email blasts, and personal cultivation. La Onda Negra is the only press with a mission of its kind in the Midwest and only one of three in the entire country. To date, its three publications include Reclamo/Reclamation, a volume of poetry by the founder; Housekeeper's Diary, a chapbook of poetry, also by the founder; Dark Water Speaking, the first anthology of Chicago-area female poets of color, in development.

Media Coverage:

Featured interviews, profiles, and by-lines in the following: USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, Latino USA/NPR, Latina Magazine, Estylo, Latina Style, Catalina, The Writer Magazine, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune, Univision, FOX-TV Channel 32, WGN-TV.

References Available on Request