ABOUT

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I write about the people, places, and things I love.

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After 10 years working as a public high school teacher in Louisiana, Massachusetts, and California, I decided to pursue my creative interests more seriously and have been living as a freelancer who travels when I can to enjoy cultures around the world. I'm a San Francisco Bay Area local with Mexican dual-citizenship, existing between both countries as I continue to write, edit, teach, and grow. In 2018, I graduated with my MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco where I was a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellow, which is awarded to a writer “whose work embodies a concern for social justice and freedom of expression.” Previously, I attended Foothill Community College, and later UC Berkeley, where I participated in June Jordan's Poetry for the People program. I also picked up some game from Patricia Smith, among others, at the Voices Of Our Nations. My first poetry collection, This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album, was the winner of the 2018 Black River Chapbook Competition and my second, Piñata Theory, was awarded the 2018 Hudson Prize. They are both available with Black Lawrence Press. Currently, I'm working as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, managing an online basketball blog, HeadFake, moonlighting as a contributing writer at KQED and SFGATE, and just asking questions wherever I go.

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Shout out my Oakland School for the Arts students who drew portraits of me so I don't ever need to take an author photo.

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You can see what I'm currently thinking about here.

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