Luis J. Rodriguez

Luis J. Rodriguez has 16 award-winning books in poetry, children's literature, fiction, nonfiction, and essays. He was a co-founder of the Guild Complex and founding editor of Tia Chucha Press in Chicago. For 40 years he's been teaching, doing poetry, talks, or healing circles in prisons, jails, and juvenile lockups. He's also spoken at festivals, conferences, libraries, bookstores, schools, college, universities, migrant camps, homeless shelters, and Native American reservations throughout the United States as well as Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, and Japan. His writings have also appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, The Guardian, The Nation, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Grand Street, US News & World Report, and Huffington Post, among others. Since moving back to Los Angeles in 2000, he co-founded Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley. From 2014-2016, he served as the city's official Poet Laureate. His last poetry book is "Borrowed Bones" from Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press.