01
Rice is the author of several books, including Give the Pig a Chance, a collection of short stories set in the Rio Grande Valley. Rice grew up in the Valley as the grandson by adoption of an Anglo man; he's spent his life looking over both sides of the Texas racial fence. He's also a playwright and screenwriter. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
02
Katherine Hoerth will join the Lamar University English Department in Fall 2017 as Assistant Professor and Editor-in-Chief of Lamar University Literary Press. Katherine's latest poetry manuscript, Goddess Wears Cowboy Boots, was published by Lamar University Press in September 2014. It won the Helen C. Smith Prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her first full poetry collection, The Garden Uprooted, was released in summer 2012 by Slough Press. The book is available both at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Her chapbook titles include The Garden of Dresses (2012) and Among the Mariposas (2010), both published by Mouthfeel Press. In 2009, she received the Nuestra Voz Prize for border women poets for her chapbook manuscript, Among the Mariposa, which was subsequently published the following year. Much of her work revisions cultural myths and narratives including: fairy tales, folktales, myths, and Biblical stories. She is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
03
Rodney Gomez is a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop. His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Denver Quarterly, Barrow Street, Blackbird, Salt Hill, and RHINO, where it was awarded the Editor’s Prize. He is the author of Mouth Filled with Night (Northwestern University Press, 2014), winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize; Spine (Newfound, 2015), winner of the Gloria Anzaldúa Poetry Prize judged by Ada Limón; and A Short Tablature of Loss (Seven Kitchens Press, 2016), winner of the Rane Arroyo Chapbook Prize judged by Eduardo C. Corral. Gomez has been awarded residencies to the Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Santa Fe Art Institute. He earned a BA in philosophy from Yale and an MFA from the University of Texas Pan American, now UT Rio Grande Valley.
04
Amalia Ortiz is a Tejana actor/writer/activist. She featured on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO, and the NAACP Image Awards on FOX. Amalia's debut book of poetry, Rant. Chant. Chisme. (Wings Press, 2015), was selected by NBC News as one of the "10 Great Latino Books." Rant. Chant. Chisme. is available now.Amalia performed at TEDx McAllen in 2015. Amalia is the writer and composer of the Latino musical Carmen de la Calle, which has been produced in San Antonio and Dallas, and the writer and star of Cancion Cannibal Cabaret, a new work premiering in summer 2016. She is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program from UT-Pan American, now UT-Rio Grande Valley.
05
Silvita Vera is a Mexican scholar who graduated from the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico, with a bachelor’s degree in theater and with an MFA in Creative Writing from The Univesity of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Dec. 2015. She is an active member in the Latino Theatre Company at the University of Texas UTRGV, as well as a member of the poetic group WAKE UP, with whom she has traveled to different places, both in the Valley of Texas and Houston, New Mexico and Peru. Panelist at various conferences Mexico-American studies as Festiba, HESTEC, NACCS and MALCS, among others. In her most remaining works are the plays: Love Measurement and alhajerito ... Cabaret and short movies: Sarita’s revenge, dress to impress and Sombras en psicosis. She has been recognized for her work in the film industry in Mexico and the United States winning awards at renowned festivals, with various branches ranging from performance to film and theater direction. She currently lives in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, where she works as a drama teacher in college and writing a little of everything. Soon to publish her first book “historias de psicópatas, desidiosos y solitarios.” Soy ARTISTA y muchas veces cambio salidas por ENSAYOS o noches de CLAUSTRO y LECTURA; el estilo por el SUDOR, noches de copa por una PRESENTACION; ropa cómoda por un VESTUARIO, he sacrificado muchas cosas, pero al final, la SATISFACCIÓN de dar lo mejor de mí en el ESCENARIO, un TEXTO o un FILME lo vale todo y sé que la gente que verdaderamente está conmigo, intenta entender MI PASIÓN.
06
Jose A. Rodriguez's poetry collections include The Shallow End of Sleep (2011,Tia Chucha Press/Northwestern UP) and Backlit Hour (2013, SFASU Press/Texas A&M UP). His work has appeared in various journals and magazines, including Poetry, The New Republic, Paterson Literary Review, Green Mountains Review, Lake Effect, Cream City Review, Water-Stone Review, Tusculum Review, Upstreet, Big Muddy, Paddlefish, and others. He's the recipient of the 2014 RHINO Founders' Prize, the 2009 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award and four nominations for the Pushcart Prize. He received a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from Binghamton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from UT-Pan American and he now teaches at its new iteration, UT-Rio Grande Valley.
07
Erika Garza-Johnson grew up in Elsa, Texas, and has been reading and performing her poetry in the Río Grande Valley since 2001. Garza-Johnson received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Texas Pan American. A writing instructor at South Texas College, she lives in McAllen with her husband and her two children. She has served as the poetry editor for New Border Voices: An Anthology (Texas A&M University Press, 2014) and ¡Juventud! Growing Up on the Border (VAO Publishing, 2013). Additionally, her poetry has been featured online in La Bloga, Con Tinta, and Poets Against SB 1070. Her work has also appeared in Texas Observer and Border Senses. Se has an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
08
Julieta Corpus has been writing since the age of eleven. She graduated from UTPA with a Bachelors Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She’s been an elementary school teacher for the past eleven years, but has never stopped writing. She’s been published by UTPA”s Gallery Magazine, Tendiendo Puentes, a poetic anthology, Mesqite Review, STC’s Interstice and Tierra Firme , and in the September 2009 issue of the Mcallen Monitor’s Festiva, Writers Edition. She also organizes poetry readings and is an active member and participant of the Rio Grande Valley Poetry Festival and the San Benito Writers forum. Julieta blames her penchant for the dramatic in her poetry to a life long addiction to Mexican soap operas.She is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program from UT-Pan American, now UT-Rio Grande Valley.
09
Lady Mariposa is Veronica Sandoval, an old school chola, street poet who has been performing poetry as a spoken word artist for over 17 years. Her writing has appeared in anthologies such as the Valley International Poetry Festival’s Boundless and The University of Texas Pan American Gallery, Lung: Online Journal and Border Senses. She has self published a collection of work titled “The Answer” and released an album "Hecha en el Valle: Spoken Word and Borderland Beats" on September 16, 2010.Veronica, who is the first Valley International Poetry Festival Slam champion, is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program from UT-Pan American, now UT-Rio Grande Valley. She's working on her Ph.D. studies at Washington State University. Research Interests: Chicana/o studies, borderland studies, cultural studies, feminist studies, social theory, race and gender studies, and popular culture.
10
Freelance writer and editor. Retired teacher (29 years). Education fanatic. Chocolate addict. Social media manager for businesses in the RGV. She is a graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program from UT-Pan American, now UT-Rio Grande Valley.
BONUS
Daniel García Ordaz is a teacher and writer, an emerging voice in Hispanic American poetry, was born in Houston, Texas in 1971 and raised in Mission, Texas. He has book publishing experience, including editing and book cover design credits. García has an MFA in Creative Writing, a terminal degree, from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He's also a song-writer, former journalist, photographicationisticator, and word-maker-upper. Daniel appears in the documentary, "ALTAR: Cruzando fronteras/Building bridges" and he was one of five authors and the only poet chosen to participate in the Texas Latino Voices project in 2009 by the Texas Center For The Book, the state affiliate of the Library of Congress. He has also been a featured reader at numerous literary events, including the Dallas International Book Fair. He is also a founder of Art That Heals, Inc. García Ordaz also is a founder of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival and served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from The University of Texas-Pan American. García Ordaz lives in the Rio Grande Valley of deep South Texas with his wife, Gina, and their children where he continues to teach write, sing, and spend time in front of a crowd as often as he can. See a videos of him on youtube.