Emmy Pérez, Texas Poet Laureate 2020, has lived in the Texas borderlands for 24 years and is originally from Santa Ana, California. She is a graduate of Columbia University (MFA) and the University of Southern California (BA). ​Pérez is currently a full professor of creative writing at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV)–formerly University of Texas-Pan American–where she also serves as department chair, teaches in the MFA and undergraduate creative writing programs, and holds the Dr. Robert S. Nelsen Endowed Professorship in Mexican American Studies (2021-2024). For five years, Pérez held various administrative positions—interim director, associate director, and acting director—with UTRGV's Center for Mexican American Studies (B3 Institute), and she is an affiliate faculty member of the Mexican American Studies academic program. ​Over the years, she has also served as a creative-writing workshop facilitator in community-based programs and adult and juvenile detention centers; she has taught writing at three border region HSI institutions, beginning at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and El Paso Community College. 

Pérez is the author of the poetry collections With the River on Our Face (University of Arizona Press, 2016) and Solstice (Swan Scythe Press, 2003, 2011, 2019). Her latest collection, Paper america: New and Selected Poems  (TCU Press, 2025) is forthcoming. Her poetry has also been published with the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series and Split this Rock's The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database, and appeared in journals such as Prairie Schooner, North American Review, Indiana Review, and Pilgrimage Magazine; and anthologies such as Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University of Georgia Press), Other Musics: New Latina Poetry (University of Oklahoma Press), Orange County: A Literary Field Guide (Heyday), ​What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy & Outrage (Northwestern U. Press), The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press), and A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line (University of Iowa Press).

Pérez is the recipient of a 2022 United States Artist Fellowship, a 2020 Poets Laureate Fellowship with the Academy of American Poets while serving as Texas Poet Laureate 2020. Other honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown; the inaugural Modesta Avila Award from LibroMobile in her hometown Santa Ana, the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award; and residencies at MacDowell, the Ucross Foundation, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Since 2008, she has been a member of the Macondo Writers' Workshop for socially engaged writers and was part of the inaugural cohort of CantoMundo fellows in 2010. In El Paso, she was a member of the Women Writers' Collective and, in 2017, co-founded Poets Against Walls writing collective in the Rio Grande Valley. She also served as the 2021 Consulting Artist-in-Residence with UT San Antonio's Democratizing Racial Justice Mellon Foundation grant in collaboration with the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. 

Nancy Gavilanes is an accomplished writer, a gifted communicator, and a passionate evangelist and Bible school instructor who loves to encourage, empower, and inspire women of diverse backgrounds to walk by abounding faith. She has been on short-term missions trips to five countries. Gavilanes has hosted several events and conferences and has spoken to numerous groups, including to Christians working at the United Nations and students at Nyack College. She has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and has authored five Christian-living books and devotionals. Her new book is God-Given Dreams: 6 Ways to Live Your Divine Purpose (NavPress, 2024). She has also written for The New York Times, the SpiritLed Woman’s and Charisma’s magazine websites, among other publications. Gavilanes is currently the host of the Abounding Faith for Today podcast and a contributing writer for Our Daily Bread Ministries.  She attends Times Square Church in New York.

Willian Olmos lives Christian values ​​and the Gospel, and is a follower of the spirituality of Brother Carlos de Foucauld. He is a researcher of Venezuelan pre-Columbian art. He also creates artistic paintings, crafts, and percussion instruments. In Venezuela, Olmos is a primary school teacher in the ​​visual arts at a state school and is a promoter of culture, reading, and writing. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Education, with honorable mention in the Visual Arts, a Master's degree in Curriculum Development, specializing in Participatory Research for Local Development, and a doctorate in Educational Sciences. From 2018 to 2023, he served as coordinator of the Charles de Foucauld Secular Fraternity of the Americas and is a member of the Charles de Foucauld Secular Fraternity's international team. Olmos lives in Venezuela with his wife Elsy Mayela Seijas.

Elsy Mayela Seijas is committed to the values of the Gospel and the spirituality of Saint Carlos de Foucauld. She writes stories, designs mini gardens, and makes jewelry. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Education, with a specialty in participatory research for Local Development, and a doctorate in Educational Sciences. She works as a researcher in participation methodologies and accompaniment of training processes. In 2002, she retired from Venezuela’s National Institute of Prevention, Health, and Occupational Safety, having served as a promoter and trainer in occupational health. From 2018 to 2023, she served as the coordinator of the Charles de Foucauld Secular Fraternity of the Americas and is a member of the Charles de Foucauld Secular Fraternity’s international team. She lives in Venezuela with her husband Willian Olmos.

Dr. Jose L. Saldivar, Jr. is a first-generation college graduate who holds BA (Chicana/o Studies) and MEd (Social Sciences of Education) degrees from Stanford University, and a PhD (Cultural Studies in Education) from The University of Texas at Austin. He is an educational consultant and coach, specializing in college, career, and life readiness coaching, and faculty development. Dr. Saldivar, a Rio Grande Valley native, is a full-time faculty member at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is the founder of CREO (College and Career Readiness and Educational Opportunity Consultants), which provides college, career, and life readiness consulting services to a variety of clients, including K-12 institutions, higher education, community organizations, and private companies. As part of CREO’s initiatives, Dr. Saldivar hosts The Way to College Podcast.

César Leonardo de León is the author of speaking with grackles by soapberry trees (FlowerSong, 2021), winner of the Texas Institute of Letters John A. Robertson Award for the best first book of poetry (2021) and of the Philosophical Society of Texas Best Book of Poetry award (2022).  Also a Golden Circle Award recipient from The University of Columbia Press, he holds an MFA in creative writing, with a certificate in Mexican American studies from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is an educator, one of four poet-organizers for Poets Against Walls, and a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop. His work has appeared in Queen Mob’s Tea House, Pilgrimage, The Acentos Review, Yellow Chair Review, La Bloga, Zócalo Public Square, and in the anthologies Asina is How We Talk: A collection of Tejano poetry written en la lengua de la gente (Flowersong Press, 2022), Pulse/Pulso: In Remembrance of Orlando (Damaged Goods Press, 2018), Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands (Aunt Lute Books, 2016), The Border Crossed Us: An Anthology to End Apartheid (VAGABOND, 2015), and Texas Weather Anthology (Lamar University Press, 2016), among others.

Alejandro Enríquez is a Boiler Engineer for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and a parishioner of Transfiguration Parish in Brooklyn, NY, where he worked in maintenance at the parochial school Our Savior for many years. He also worked as Second Chef at a French restaurant in Manhattan. For more than a decade, Enríquez has led a Jesús de Nazaret [Jesus of Nazareth] Fraternity at Transfiguration, which he represented as a delegate at the 2023 Encuentro Continental Fraternidad Secular San Carlos de Foucauld América [Saint Charles de Foucauld Secular Fraternity Continental Meeting] in Medellín, Colombia. Born in Puebla, Mexico, Enríquez lives in Ridgewood, NY with his wife Petra; they have three daughters and live with a daughter and two grandchildren.

Daniel García Ordaz, a.k.a. The Poet Mariachi is a singer-songwriter, teacher and author from Mission, Texas. He is also a TEDx Speaker, Navy veteran, 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee, and the 2023 McAllen Poet Laureate, City of McAllen, Texas. García Ordaz’s Christian faith permeates much of his writing, which is seasoned with influences from his Mexican American upbringing. He earned a BA in English from The University Of Texas-Pan American (UTPA, now the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) and an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), and he appears in the documentary ALTAR: Cruzando fronteras/Building Bridges (2009). His books include You Know What I'm Sayin'? (El Zarape Press, 2006), Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment (FlowerSong Press, 2018) and its YA Edition, as well as Read Until You Bleed: Funny & Thoughtful Poems For Funny & Thoughtful Children (El Zarape Press, 2023). García Ordaz's work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Asina Is How We Talk (FlowerSong Press, 2022); Good Cop/Bad Cop (FlowerSong Press, 2021); Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican In America (Penguin Random House, 2021); Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century (Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, 2020); Poetry of Resistance: Voices For Social Justice (University of Arizona Press, 2016); Twenty: In Memoriam (El Zarape Press, 2014); and Boundless, the anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, which he founded. He may be found on social media at @poetmariachi.

Paolo Piscitelli is a Visiting Lecturer in Sculpture in the Department of Studio Arts at University of Pittsburgh. Influenced by the atmosphere of the Arte Povera movement, he has worked in a broad range of techniques and disciplines including drawing, sculpture, installation, digital media, phenomenological experimentation with materials and their interaction with time. His sculpture prioritizes a sustainable ecological practice developed, in part, through traveling and teaching. Piscitelli’s current work and research involve the use of simple hand tools to carve small-scale sculptures assessed with sight and touch. Piscitelli has exhibited internationally, doing many shows in private spaces–like Studio Tucci Russo, Torre Pellice and e/static, Turin (Italy); Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam (Holland)--as well as in public spaces like Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM) in Torino and in Bologna, Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea (MLAC) - Sapienza, Rome; and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (Italy); the FRAC-Bourgogne in Dijon (France); Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX and the Museum of Art, Denver, CO (United States). He holds BFA and MA degrees in Sculpture from Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin, Italy, and an MFA in Creative Practice from the Transart Institute in the School of Art and Media at University of Plymouth, UK. Piscitelli lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. See more of his work at: artpaolo.com.

Dr. José E. Balcells Gallarreta is the Executive Director of Iodea, a non-profit organization providing religious educational programs. At Iodea, Balcells explores how to make theological studies more engaging and effective by using proven methods of instruction that integrate Digital Tutor (DT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Prior to this, he taught at several universities in California and in Puerto Rico. Dr. Balcells holds an MA in Biblical Languages from the Jesuit School of Theology of Berkeley and a PhD in Biblical Studies, with an emphasis on texts of Second Temple Judaism and the archaeology of the Ancient Near East of the Persian period, from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His article “Old Testament Archaeology.” appears in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century (Bloomsbury, 2022). Part of his research has focused on the integration of archaeology with biblical studies. One of his most important projects in this area was the publication of Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah: An Archaeological Approach (SBL Press, 2017) as part of the Society of Biblical Literature’s Ancient Near East Monograph Series. He has participated in archaeological excavations in Tel Akko and Tel Azekah, Israel. He also has been involved with other projects related to the archaeology of the ancient Near East. Professional memberships include: American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), Asociación Bíblica Española (ABE), and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL).

Sudabée Lotfian-Mena is in her first year of the doctoral theology program at the University of Dayton. She is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic Latina-Middle Eastern scholar whose area of study focuses on First-World neoliberal and globalist schemes and their effects on the Third World. She hopes to explore the implications of these postcolonial/decolonial realities for the religious sphere, both in Latin America and in transplanted population spaces.

Edward Vidaurre is an award-winning poet and author of eight collections of poetry, including Cry, Howl (Prickly Pear Publishing, 2021) and By Throat, By Miracle: New & Selected Poems (Luchadora Press, 2023). His writings have also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Texas Observer, and Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as in other journals and anthologies. He is the publisher and editor-in-chief of FlowerSong Press and its sister imprint Juventud Press, as well as the founder of Pasta, Poetry & Vino and Barrio Poet Productions. He was the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, Texas Poet Laureate; a recipient of an Award of Merit 2020 by The Philosophical Society of Texas for Best Book of Poetry by a Texas Author; and a 2022 inductee to the Texas Institute of Letters. Vidaurre—a Californian of Salvadoran ancestry born in East Los Angeles and transplanted to the Texas borderlands—resides in McAllen, TX with his wife and daughter, where they foster dogs in need until they find their forever homes.

Charles Alcorn has lived in and written about Texas his entire life. A former all-state linebacker, Alcorn founded Splendid Seed Tobacco Company, was a sportswriter, and worked as a packaged goods copywriter before receiving his PhD in English Literature/Creative Writing (Fiction) from the University of Houston. Alcorn is the author of the short-story collection Argument Against the Good-Looking Corpse (Texas Review Press, 2011). Beneath the Sands of Monahans (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2023) is his debut novel. Alcorn currently lives in Edinburg, Texas on the US-Mexico border.

Dr. Nely Galán is a self-made media and real-estate entrepreneur. She was born in Santa Clara, Cuba and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. Dr. Galán became the first Latina President of Entertainment for a U.S. television network—Telemundo—and an Emmy Award-winning producer of over 700 television shows in English and Spanish, including the hit reality series The Swan for 20th Century Fox, produced through her multimedia company Galan Entertainment. The company has created more than 700 television shows in English and in Spanish, helping to launch over 10 television channels around the world for companies like HBO, ESPN, FOX, MGM, and Sony. She holds a master’s and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on the psychology of money in multicultural communities.

Dr. Galán’s New York Times-bestselling book SELF MADE: Becoming Empowered, Self-Reliant, and Rich in Every Way (Spiegel & Grau, 2016; published in English, Spanish, and Mandarin) is an entrepreneurship-for-women manifesto that coined the phrase “Don’t buy shoes; buy buildings.” Her digital platform Becoming Self Made offers financial literacy content, including webinars and stories of self-made women of color. Money Maker/Mi mundo rico with Nely Galán (Money News Network), which targets listeners who have traditionally been denied a seat at the table, is the only business and entrepreneurship podcast for a mainstream audience with episodes in English and in Spanish. Dr. Galán is the founder of the 501c3 nonprofit The Adelante Movement, a national motivational tour and digital platform that unites and empowers Latinas socially, economically, and politically. Currently, Dr. Galán serves on the Aspen Institute’s Latinos and Society Advisory Board; formerly, she served as a board member of the Smithsonian Institute and of The Hispanic Scholarship Fund. She is the mom of Lukas Rodríguez and is based in Miami Beach, Florida.

Dlia Adassa McDonald Woolery is an Afro-Costa Rican and Afro-Panamanian poet and essayist. Since 1997, she has been the director of the Don Chico Creation Workshops and director of the Francisco Zúñiga Díaz Cultural Café, in San José, Costa Rica. She is the founder and columnist of the art and literary criticism blog “La coleccionista de espejos” and a founding member of the Center for the Study of Ethnic Culture in Costa Rica. Her poetic works include El séptimo círculo del obelisco (Ediciones El Café Cultura, 1993), Sangre de madera (Ediciones El Café Cultural Francisco Zúñiga Díaz, 1995), …la lluvia es una piel (Ministerio de Cultura y Juventud, 2000), Instinto tribal…: Antología poética personal (Ediciones Kike y Tetey, 2004), Voces Indelebles (co-edited with Shirley Campbell, Universidad Nacional, 2010), and Todas las voces que canta el mar (Sediento Ediciones, México, 2012). Her poetry has been the subject of study for nine North American and European universities. In 2009, Woolery became the second Central American to be inducted into the Library of Congress, and her work has been featured in Place, Language, and Identity in Afro-Costa Rican Literature by Dorothy E. Mosby (University of Missouri, 2004); Under a Quicksilver Moon (Library of Congress, 2002); Woman Unfolding the City, edited by Anne Lambright and Elizabeth Guerrero (University of Minnesota, 2005); and meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, edited by Kwame Dixon (University of Syracuse / Universidad de Salamanca, 2003); among other publications. She was a finalist for the 2001 International Library of Poetry contest, organized by poetry.com, and received the 2004 Queen Mumuhusa trophy, awarded by the African Diaspora Association. Woolery has been a member of the Association of Colonense Writers (Panama) since 2015.

Isabel Gonzalez is an MDiv candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary and Communications Coordinator at the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI), where she previously served as a Student Aide. Gonzalez holds a BA in English and Biblical Religious Studies from Messiah University.

Dr. Natasha Gordon-Chipembere is a professor of African Diasporic literature and of Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She holds a PhD in English from the University of South Africa. Her dissertation focused on Sarah Baartman, “an enslaved Khoisan woman in the early 19th century who was taken to Europe and made to work in ‘freak shows,’” and appears in the anthology she co-edited, Representation and Black Womanhood: The Legacy of Sarah Baartman (Springer, 2011). Dr. Gordon-Chipembere’s writing has also been published in Essence Magazine, along with a monthly series, “Musings from An Afro-Costa Rican,” in the Tico Times. She is a Senior Co-editor with Eduardo Paulino of the AfroLatin@ Diasporas Book Series from Palgrave, where they prioritize the voices of emerging Afro-Latin@ scholars. Her current writing focuses on slavery and the legacy of Afro-descendants in Latin America, including her historical fiction novel Finding La Negrita (Jaded Ibis Press, 2022). Dr. Gordon-Chipembere is the founder and host of the annual Tengo Sed Writing Retreats in Costa Rica, an exclusive gathering of global BIPOC writers in Costa Rica for a week. She was born in New York to Costa Rican/Panamanian parents and eventually moved to Costa Rica with her husband and two children.

Christian Silva is a recent graduate from a Chicago bible college and will be attending Princeton Theological Seminary in the fall of 2023. As a Chicano, he values the intersection of social justice, theology, and the Mexican-American experience, seeking to do theology and studies pa' la gente. Silva also values his particulars as a biracial Chicano whose familial roots can be traced to pre-Guadalupe Hidalgo, Texas and New Mexico. He enjoys exploring Latinx theologies and histories just as much as he loves cooking family recipes.

Alma Lizzette Cárdenas-Rodríguez is a countercultural and faith-rooted writer, speaker, and mentor. She currently serves as an academic advisor for graduate students at Fuller Theological Seminary. A Mexico-Estadounidense born and raised in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, she is the daughter of parents who migrated from Mexico’s Durango and Jalisco states. Her upbringing was heavily influenced by her protestant Latina faith community whose unwillingness to engage or answer her questions led her to seminary school. Cárdenas-Rodríguez holds an MA in Transformational Urban Leadership from Azusa Pacific University, an Urban Youth Workers Certificate from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor in Christian Ministry from Facultad de Teología. She has over ten years experience in co-leading and mentoring youth and young adults at a local multi-generational Latina congregation in the San Fernando Valley, and other non-profit spaces. Cárdenas-Rodríguez is the author of Groanings from the Desert (Alegría Publishing, 2020). Through her writing, she hopes to encourage youth and women of color in faith, academic, and community spaces by sharing her story and facilitating workshops to help write visions to light. In her free time, she enjoys hanging out at local coffee shops; being in the company of her daughters, family, friends, or a good book; silent retreats; and exploring the outdoors or dreaming with her husband Sergio.

Erasmo Guerra is the author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning novel Between Dances (Painted Leaf Press, 2000) and the story collection Once More to the River: Family Snapshots of Growing Up, Getting Out and Going Back (CreateSpace, 2012). He was a longtime freelance contributor to the Daily News, covering the New York Latino immigrant community, and he was the research editor at Cosmopolitan for Latina Magazine during its print run. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Texas Monthly, Texas Observer, and a number of literary anthologies. Guerra holds a BA in Creative Writing from The New School. He was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley on the U.S.-Mexico border and currently lives in New York City.