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UTRGV MFA Alumni who have published their books.
1.Brian Allen Carr, Short Bus
“Short Bus” is a darkly humorous collection of linked stories set in the southern haunts of coastal Texas, near where the Rio Grande dumps its brackish water into the Gulf of Mexico. The stories in this book ponder deformity in all its forms.
2.Isaac Chavarria, POXO
This collection of poetry revisits those uprooted and attempting to adjust to life in the United States and walks into the lives of the barrio-colonia where canals, orange groves, and streets intersect. It settles in the mexclado of raza: anglos, tejanos, migrants, chican@s, transients, y mas.
3.Shoney Flores, Parts
Set in deep, humid South Texas—where Mexico is a ten-minute drive and culturally characterizes the region—Parts tells the story of vulgar Mexican men working in the auto parts industry, men who create a suffocating atmosphere of machismo, immorality, and sexual innuendo.
4.Daniel Garcia Ordaz, Cenzontle / Mockingbird
A code-switching collection of diverse poetic forms, styles, and personas celebrating the dynamics of the human voice and spirit. A polyglottic exhibition of empowerment through performance.
5. Erika Garza Johnson, Unwoven
Unwoven is an unflinchingly honest exploration of Chicana womanhood along the border, a scattering of quetzal feathers and jade that celebrate the achingly lovely paradox of life on the edges and in the middle.
6. Rodney Gomez, Mouth Filled with Night
The winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize, Rodney Gomez’s collection, “Mouth Filled with Night”, employs familiar emblems of Mexican American identity to repeatedly subvert expectations while intensifying the dilemmas of affiliation.
7. Kathie Hoerth, Among the Mariposas
In “Among the Mariposas”, Katherine Hoerth emerges as an authentic new poetic voice in the Rio Grande Valley. She is both an insider and outsider in this predominantly Mexican-American region, embracing the local culture even as she feels edgy about her place within it. Her poetry holds up a mirror to the lyrical beauty of the Tex-Mex border and the muddy waters that run through it.
8. César L. de León, Speaking with Grackles by Soapberry Trees
César L. de León’s debut book, “Speaking with Grackles by Soapberry Trees”, is a collection of poems that make their home in the borderlands of Texas. There are poems rooted in childhood and young-adult memories, like “El Mundo” and “Learning to Swim,” and works like “The Migration of the Mariposa” twin poems and others that deal with queerness, identity, and relationships —familial and romantic.
9. Amalia Ortiz, Rant. Chant. Chisme.
“Rant. Chant. Chisme.” is the debut collection of poetry by south Texas native Amalia Ortiz, featuring writing from the first decade of her career. Readers will get a taste of life on the border from the perspective of a young woman of color struggling to write herself into existence. These poems introduce a unique new transcultural feminist viewpoint as the poems call for social and political change along the borderlands
10.Amalia L. Ortiz (MP3 Music), The Canción Cannibal Cabaret & Other Songs
11.Lady Mariposa (MP3 Music), Spoken Words and Borderlands Beats
2. Former MFA student Rodney Gomez won a prize and the publication of his poetry book from Sundress Publications. Click here to read more.
3. Former MFA student Shoney Flores’ novel “Parts” was published by Texas Review Press and is available for order. Click here to read more.
4. Former student Julieta Corpus’ poem "Wintered" was accepted by Dos Gatos Press for publication in its 2016 Texas Calendar. She read her poetry at The Twig Bookshop in San Antonio on Saturday Oct. 24. Her poem, "The Gathering" appeared in La Bloga online.
5. Alumnus Caleb Camacho delivered an academic paper at CCTE (Conference of College Teachers of English) in March 2016.
6. Alumnus Isaac Chavarria's poetry book “Poxo” (Slough Press) won the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Scholars Tejas Foco Poetry Award.
7. Alumnus Jennielee Garza took a new position with UTSA as the Senior Communications Coordinator at the Institute for Economic Development.
8. Alumnus Robert Moriera won the annual fiction prize of the National Association of Chicana and Chicana Scholars Tejas Foco for his book “Scores”. He earned his Ph.D. at UTSA in May 2016.
9. Alumna Veronica Sandoval, a.k.a. Lady Mariposa, is a graduate student working on her Ph.D. in American Studies at Washington State University and her first official collection of work was released in 2016 through FlowerSong Books.
10. Alumnus Rodney Gomez was the Featured Poet in Houston on Dec. 5, 2015, as part of the Public Poetry Library Reading Series. He is the author of “Mouth Filled with Night” (Northwestern University Press in 2014), which won the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. His second chapbook, “Spine” (Newfound 2015), won the inaugural Gloria Anzaldúa Poetry Prize. His poem "The Clowns" appeared in Fairy Tale Review. His third chapbook, “A Short Tablature of Loss”, was selected in another national contest, the Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series selected by Eduardo Corral and Ron Mohring.
11. Alumna Katie Hoerth’s review of Octavio Quintanilla's book, ‘If I Go Missing’, was published in an issue of Pleiades, and she had a poem included in Texas Review Press' The Southern Poetry Anthology series. The Mas Tequila Review published two pieces of hers. The Langdon Review of Arts in Texas ran several of her poems. One of her sapphic sonnets was published in the winter issue of Concho River Review. She did a book presentation and signing at the Edinburg library on 9/3/15. The Dos Gatos Press published her villanelle, "Kitty Leeroy Proposes Marriage," in an anthology, Poetry of the American Southwest. She won the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award from the Texas Institute for Letters for best poetry collection: Goddess Wears Cowboy Boots (Lamar University Press 2014). Her poetry collection, “The Lost Chronicles of Slue Foot Sue”, was accepted for publication with Lamar University Literary Press for publication in 2017.
12. Former student Cano Costilla,'sCostilla's poem, "It Had Been Six Days," won first place in the graduate poetry category in the student writing contest run by TACWT, The Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers, in September 2015.