Daniel A. Olivas, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, is an award-winning playwright and author of 12 books including Chicano Frankenstein: A Novel (Forest Avenue Press), My Chicano Heart: New and Collected Stories of Love and Other Transgressions (University of Nevada Press), and Crossing the Border: Collected Poems (Pact Press).

Olivas is also the co-editor of The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles (Tía Chucha Press), and editor of Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press). He is co-editor of the University of Nevada Press's New Oeste book series.

His writing has been widely anthologized including in LA Fiction Anthology: Southland Stories by Southland Writers (Red Hen Press), New California Writing (Heyday Books), and Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America (W. W. Norton). Olivas has written for many publications including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Alta Journal, Latino Book Review, and La Bloga.

Olivas earned his degree in English literature from Stanford University, and law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1990, he as served as an attorney in the California Department of Justice's Public Rights Division.

Website: http://danielolivas.com

Twitter Username: @olivasdan

Publications

• The King of Lighting Fixtures: Stories , University of Arizona Press (2017)
• Cross the Border: Collected Poems , Pact Pess (2017)
• Things We Do Not Talk About: Exploring Latino/a Literature through Essays and Interviews , San Diego State University Press (2014)
• The Book of Want: A Novel , University of Arizona Press (2011)
• Anywhere But L.A.: Stories , Bilingual Press (2009)
• Latinos in Lotusland , Bilingual Press (2008)
• The Courtship of María Rivera Peña , Silver Lake Publishing (2000)
• Benjamin and the Word , Arte Público Press (2005)
• Devil Talk: Stories , Bilingual Press (2004)
• Assumption and Other Stories , Bilingual Press (2003)

Awards

• Semi-Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Award - American Blues Theater (2021)
• Latino Books into Movies, First Place, Romantic Comedy (2012)
• Independent Publisher Book Awards, Silver Medal, Multicultural Adult Fiction (2012)
• 2012 Virginia Commonwealth University Cabell First Novelist Award, Semifinalist (2012)
• International Latino Book Awards, Finalist, Best Popular Fiction (2012)
• Willa Cather Fiction Contest, Finalist (2000)

Employment

• Attorney at California Department of Justice (July 1990 - )

Degrees

• Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Stanford University (1981)
• Doctoral Degree in Law from UCLA School of Law (1984)

Genres of Interest

Fiction, Creative nonfiction, Playwriting, Screenwriting, Children's literature , Poetry