Emmy Pérez, USA Fellow 2022 and Texas Poet Laureate 2020, is the author of the poetry collections With the River on Our Face and Solstice. A volume of her new and collected works is forthcoming. Her work has also appeared on the Poetry Foundation online, Poem-a-Day with the Academy of American Poets, The Quarry: A Social Justice Database with Split this Rock, Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, Other Musics: New Latina Poetry, The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, and other publications.

Originally from Santa Ana, CA, Pérez is a graduate of the University of Southern California and Columbia University. She has received poetry fellowships from the Academy of American Poets (Poets Laureate Fellowship), National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and CantoMundo. She is also a recipient of the Modesta Avila Award, Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award, and the James D. Phelan Award. She has been awarded writing residencies at the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Fine Arts Work Center. Since 2008, she has been an active member of the Macondo Writers Workshop for socially engaged writers. She is a founding member of the community-based collective, Poets Against Walls and has also served on the organizing committee for CantoMundo.

Over the years, Pérez taught writing in juvenile and adult detention centers in New Mexico and Texas. Currently, Pérez is a full professor and chair in the Department of Creative Writing in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where she has taught since 2006 at legacy institution UT Pan American. She also is an affiliate faculty member in Mexican American Studies. In 2016, she received an Excellence Award in Student Mentoring, and in 2012, a University of Texas Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award. Currently, she holds the Dr. Robert S. Nelsen Professorship in Mexican American Studies at UTRGV.

Website: www.emmyperez.com

Twitter Username: @emmyemmaperez

Publications

• With the River on Our Face , University of Arizona Press (October 2016)
• SOLSTICE (2nd edition) , Swan Scythe Press (2011)
• SOLSTICE (1st edition) , Swan Scythe Press (December 2003)

Awards

• United States Artist Fellowship(2022)
• Poets Laureate Fellowship, Academy of American Poets(2020)
• National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship(2017)
• Excellence Award in Student Mentoring, UT Rio Grande Valley(2016)
• University of Texas Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award(2012)
• CantoMundo Poetry Fellow, (2010-2012)
• Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Award(2009)
• James Hearst Poetry Prize, honorable mention(2003)
• Atlantic Center for the Arts writing residency(2003)
• Ucross Foundation writing residency(1999)
• MacDowell Colony writing residency(1998)
• New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship(1997)
• James D. Phelan Literary Award, San Francisco Foundation(1996)
• Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown Poetry Fellowship (1995-96)(1995)
• Modesta Avila Award, LibroMobile(2019)

Employment

• Professor, Creative Writing at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (legacy institution UT Pan American). Associate Prof. 2012-2018; Assistant Prof. 2006-2012. (August 2006 - )
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at University of Texas at El Paso (August 2004 - August 2005)
• Lecturer, Department of English at University of Texas at El Paso (August 2001 - August 2004)

Degrees

• Bachelor of Arts in English Literature (concentration in Creative Writing) from University of Southern California (May 1993)
• Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Columbia University (October 1995)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Poetry