liz gonzalez, Author and Director of Uptown Word & Arts

liz gonzález, a fourth-generation Southern Californian, grew up in the San Bernardino Valley. She is the author of Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected (Los Nietos Press 2018) and the poetry collection Beneath Bone (Manifest Press 2000). Her poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction have been published widely and recently appeared in Voices de la Luna, the City of Los Angeles 2017 Latino Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, and Litbreak Magazine, and in the anthologies, Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Voices from Leimert Park Anthology Redux.

Her awards include an Arts Council for Long Beach Incite / Insight Award, an Arts Council for Long Beach Professional Artist Fellowship, an Elizabeth George Foundation Artistic Grant, a Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts Residency, an Irvine Fellowship at the Lucas Artists Residency Program, a Macondo Casa Azul Writers Residency, and a Hedgebrook residency.

liz is a creative writing instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers Program. She holds an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College and a BA in Theatre Arts: Acting and Directing from CSU Los Angeles. She directs Uptown Word & Arts, promoting literacy and the arts since 2015, is a member of Macondo Writers Workshop, and served on the Macondo 2018 Ad Hoc Advisory Board.

liz lives in North Long Beach, California, with an indifferent mix breed chihuahua, a talkative tortie cat, and Jorge Martin, a scientist and musician.