Reyna Grande is the author of the novels Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies, which received several awards including an American Book Award. Her memoir, The Distance Between Us, is about her life before and after illegally immigrating from Mexico to the US at nine.

Alex Espinoza is the author of Still Water Saints and The Five Acts of Diego León. The recipient of an NEA fellowship and an American Book Award, he is visiting associate professor at CSULA.

Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City in 1983 and grew up in South Africa. A novelist (Faces in the Crowd and The Story of My Teeth) and essayist (Sidewalks), her work has been translated into many languages. In 2014, Faces in the Crowd was the recipient of the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 award. The Story of My Teeth was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the 2015 Los Angeles Times Prize for Best Fiction.

Natalia Trevino is the author of Lavando La Dirty Laundry, Poemas. She is a professor of English, an award-winning writer, and her first novel, Drinking the Bee Water, is forthcoming. After a silent decade as a teacher then stay at home mom, things changed. 

Gabriela Jauregui is the author of the short story collection La memoria de las cosas as well as the poetry collection Controlled Decay. She received her PhD in comparative literature from USC, as well as an MFA in creative writing from UC Riverside. She is cofounder of sur+ publishing collective.