A Writing Journey

My first book, Chants, was published in 1984 by Arte Público Press at the University of Houston. I was an administrator at the University of Texas at El Paso when my first copy arrived. Thanks to my mom, I’d grown up loving books, libraries, and reading in the desert city of El Paso. How happy it made me to hold that little book Chants with my name on it.

Since then, I’ve published seven books of poetry for adults and young adults and three books of nonfiction, one a family memoir, House of Hous...