Volcanistas 2024

Culiacán, Sinaloa

Journalism
with Elisabeth Malkin

ROBERT L. BREEN JOURNALISM FELLOW

I was born and raised in Culiacán, México. I’m especially interested in covering human rights, gender and justice; I have also had the opportunity to write about security, the environment and corruption. Along my way, I’ve collaborated with Sinaloa media, as well as national and international media. I’m currently a freelance journalist and fixer in my hometown. I’ve been a fellow of the International Women’s Media Foundation, the PRENDE program of the Universidad Iberoamericana and other spaces as Cátedra Miguel Ángel Granados Chapa of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. I work every day to be a better person and become a better journalist.

Mexico City

Journalism
with Elisabeth Malkin

Para mí, la escritura es una herramienta para escuchar mejor, para preguntar más, para cultivar el asombro y el titubeo. Eso intento que sea. Mientras armaba mi libro Aunque la casa se derrumbe (UNAM, 2017), la escritura fue el pretexto para vagar por la Ciudad de México y acercarme a algunos de sus personajes como a Salomón que vive en la calle y perdió la credencial que le daba identidad o a Orquídea que hace películas porno que esconde de sus nietos. Formo parte del colectivo Topote de Acahual que desarrolla narrativas ecológicas en la selva de los Tuxtlas. Obtuve el premio Nacional de Periodismo 2015 y he colaborado en diversos medios nacionales e internacionales. Hice el doctorado en Estudios Hispánicos en Texas. Me interesan las historias fronterizas tanto geográfica, política como emocionalmente. Una vez asistí a un festival de música en el río Bravo.

For me, writing is a tool to listen, to ask questions, to cultivate wonder and hesitation. I try to follow that premise. While I was putting together my book  Aunque la casa se derrumbe (UNAM, 2017), writing was the pretext to wander around Mexico City and get closer to some of its characters, such as Salomón, who lives on the streets and lost the credential that gave him his identity or Orquídea who makes porn movies that she hides from her grandchildren. I am part of the Topote de Acahual collective that develops ecological narratives in the Tuxtlas jungle. I won the 2015 National Journalism Award and have collaborated in various national and international media. I did my PhD in Hispanic Studies in Texas. I am interested in border stories both geographically, politically and emotionally. I once attended a music festival at the Rio Grande.

Washington DC / Mexico City

Narrativa
con Alberto Chimal

De día soy periodista, de noche me gusta escribir ficción, sobre todo cuentos cortos. Llevo toda mi vida habitando entre volcanes y árboles de cerezo. De niña mi papá me leyó mis primeros libros, ahora yo se los leo a mi hija. De la escritura me encanta habitar personajes que rompen estereotipos para crear nuevas narrativas. Creo en la colectividad de la escritura, por lo que lidero un círculo de lectura y escritura creativa tejido por mujeres. Soy maestra en Estudios Latinoamericanos por la Universidad de Georgetown (Washington DC) y licenciada en Comunicación, con especialidad en Periodismo, por la Universidad Iberoamericana (CDMX). Actualmente curso el III Diplomado en Escritura Creativa y Crítica Literaria (2023-2024) de la UNAM. 

During the day, I’m a journalist and at night, I enjoy writing fiction, especially short stories. I’ve spent my entire life living among volcanoes and cherry trees. When I was a child, my dad read my first books to me, and now I read them to my daughter. As a writer, I love to inhabit characters that break stereotypes to create new narratives. I believe in the collective nature of writing, which is why I lead a circle of reading and creative writing woven by women. I hold a Master’s in Latin American Studies from Georgetown University (Washington DC) and a Bachelor’s in Communication, with a focus on Journalism, from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City). I’m currently enrolled at UNAM’s III Diploma in Creative Writing and Literary Criticism (2023-2024).

Durango, México

Narrativa
con Alberto Chimal

Aunque nací y me crié en el norte, la literatura me ha hecho cambiar de casa: estudié la licenciatura en Letras en Zacatecas y una maestría en Literatura Mexicana en Guadalajara. Soy autora de varios libros de cuentos, entre ellos Hágalo usted misma (2023) y Corazones negros (2019), así como de la novela Ecos (2021, 2017). He ganado algunos premios estatales y en 2017 recibí el Premio Nacional de Cuento Fantástico y de Ciencia Ficción. Fui becaria del Fonca/Jóvenes Creadores en el ciclo 2018-2019. He colaborado en revistas como Letras Libres, Tierra Adentro, Playboy y Rio Grande Review. Trabajé una breve temporada como burócrata cultural, pero lo abandoné para dedicarme a una de mis pasiones: enseñar literatura. Me obsesionan las actividades que implican usar las manos de forma mecánica, como armar rompecabezas, el bordado, el tejido y la natación.

Portland, Oregon

Prose Manuscript Coaching
with Jennifer Clement

I’m the author of the novels Couch (two-time Indie-Next pick) and Sherwood Nation (chosen for the Silicon Valley Reads program), as well as numerous short stories which can be found in venues such as Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed Magazine, West Branch, and The Bellevue Literary Review.  Among other projects, I founded Gumball Poetry, a literary journal published in gumball capsule machines, co-ran Project Hamad, an effort to free a Guantanamo inmate (Adel Hamad is now free), and co-run Black Magic Insurance Agency, a one-night city-wide alternative reality game. I can be found at https://levinofearth.com and @sparkwatson (in the ruins of Twitter) and @[email protected] (in the newly founded metropolis where hope springs eternal). His website is a game in which you, if you wish, may fight the author in battle. No hard feelings though. Here is a peace offering.

Charleston, West Virginia

Poetry Manuscript Coaching 
with Keetje Kuipers

I am a queer poet living on a mountainside orchard in my spouse’s home state of West Virginia. I grew up north of Boston, received various degrees from schools in Rennes, France, Montréal, Canada, and San Francisco, California. My poetry has appeared in Southeast Review, Pleiades, Cream City Review, Best New Poets, The Beloit Poetry Journal, among others. As a non-traditional student of poetry—I hold an MFA in Film—I have turned to workshops and conferences to connect with and learn from other writers. I’ve been fortunate enough to receive support for my work including scholarships and fellowships to Bread Loaf and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. As a survivor of conversion therapy, I openly advocate for LGBTQ+ civil rights. I love to travel and go on road trips, despite always getting terribly, terribly carsick.

Veracruz, Ver. / New York City

Poesía
con Rafael Segovia

Poet, narrator and lawyer. I was born in Veracruz, Mexico and I live in New York City. I have a Bachelor of Laws from Universidad de las Americas, Puebla and a Masters of Laws from New York University. I also graduated from the Hague Academy of International Law. I am currently a second-year student at the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Spanish at New York University. As a lawyer, I have worked advising the Mexican federal government and several international organizations. As a writer, I have attended different creative workshops lead by poet Iveth Luna Flores and narrator Martha Bátiz. In 2021, I published my poem Un trompo in the Journal of Poetry of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In 2022, my short story El mar, la espina was included in Historias de Los Cabos, an anthology published by Barco Varado Ediciones. On April 2023, my first poetry book Cinisiomancia was published by Barco Varado Ediciones. Most recently, Temporales magazine published my poems Equinoccios and Recoleta. I write about femineity, feminism, family, the cycle of life and death, grief, the everchanging body and about my first love, the sea.

Poeta, narradora y abogada. Nací en el Puerto de Veracruz, México y actualmente vivo en New York. Obtuve la Licenciatura en Derecho en la Universidad de las Américas Puebla y la Maestría en Derecho en New York University. También egresé de la Academia de Derecho Internacional de La Haya. Actualmente, curso el segundo año de la Maestría en Bellas Artes en Escritura Creativa en New York University. En el ámbito legal, me he desempeñado como abogada en la administración pública federal de México y en distintos organismos internacionales. En el ámbito literario, he participado en talleres de poesía liderados por la poeta Iveth Luna Flores y de narrativa con la escritora Martha Bátiz. En 2021, publiqué el poema Un trompo en el Periódico de Poesía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. En 2022, mi relato El mar, la espina fue incluido en la antología Historias de Los Cabos de Barco Varado Ediciones. En abril de 2023, publiqué Cinisiomancia, mi primer libro de poesía bajo el sello de Barco Varado Ediciones. Recientemente, la revista Temporales publicó mis poemas Equinoccios y Recoleta. Escribo sobre feminidad, feminismo, familia, el ciclo de la vida y la muerte, el duelo, el cuerpo que muta y sobre mi primer amor, el mar

New York City, USA / Santiago, Chile

Poesía
con Rafael Segovia

Cristalina Parra is a Chilean writer and researcher based in New York City. Her first poetry book, Tamabelos (2021) centers on grief by exploring intergenerational experience, temporality, distance, and heritage. In 2023, Parra began working on Rasters in Abu Dhabi, a collection of satellite images and poems of Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s now re-developing port. These poems, like raster data files, provide an effective method of storing the continuity of Mina Zayed. In this case, the grief Parra focuses on is more subtle, and it takes the shape of abandoned cityscapes, empty warehouses, and roads with no return. Being both a poet and Art Historian, she is now interested in looking for places where her two disciplines meet. On sunny days when she is neither writing nor studying, she likes to sit under the sun and do nothing but listen to music on her headphones, and if the weather is dark and rainy, she enjoys cooking for her friends.

Washington, DC / El Paso, Texas

Poetry
with Jennifer Clement

Dahlia is an emergent writer at 52. Her unpublished poetry collection Of Medicine and Monsters is an autobiographical collection that charts a young woman’s life through poverty and racism — as well as healing and actualization. The pieces play with perspective– what children understand about the universe they inhabit and what adults make of their memory. The resulting manuscript is a bittersweet reduction of what hurt and what healed. Dahlia’s second manuscript Tidal Range ventures outside the self to comment on politics at large, examining the ironies and hypocrisy of settler culture and social structures, especially as they relate to being brown in the United States.  

When she is not writing she loves bordado, making jewelry, gardening, playing guitar, and listening to live music of every genre.  She lives with menopause, her son, her husky and her pitbull.  
Dahlia es una escritora emergente a sus 52 años. La colección de poesía inédita De medicina y monstruos es una colección autobiográfica que traza la vida de una mujer joven a través de la pobreza y el racismo, así como la curación y la actualización. Las piezas juegan con la perspectiva: lo que los niños entienden sobre el universo que habitan y lo que los adultos hacen de su memoria. El manuscrito resultante es una reducción agridulce de lo que dolía y lo que sanaba. El segundo manuscrito de Dahlia Rango de marea se aventura fuera de sí mismo para comentar sobre la política en general, examinando las ironías y la hipocresía de la cultura de los colonos y las estructuras sociales, especialmente en lo que se refieren a ser moreno en los Estados Unidos. Cuando no está escribiendo le encanta el bordado, hacer joyas, hacer jardinería, tocar la guitarra y escuchar música en vivo de cada género. Ella vive con menopausia, su hijo, su husky y su pitbull.

Houston, Texas/ Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas

Coaching en narrativa
con Socorro Venegas

PÁGINA DORADA FELLOWSHIP

He vivido en más de diez ciudades mexicanas y estadounidenses, incluyendo Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, Nuevo Laredo y McAllen, por lo que me considero una mujer fronteriza.  Ahora radico en Houston, Texas, donde curso un doctorado en Escritura Creativa. Además de escribir, soy profesora de español, materno a mi hija de cuatro años y a dos perrhijos chihuahua. Me gusta la astrología, estar en la naturaleza y escuchar música post-punk.

I’ve lived in ten Mexican and US cities including Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, Nuevo Laredo and McAllen, so I consider myself a writer of the border. I currently live in Houston, Texas, where I am a doctoral candidate in Creative Writing. I also teach Spanish and mother my four-year old daughter and two Chihuahua babies. I like astrology, being in nature and listening to post-punk music.

Vancouver, Canada

Prose Manuscript Coaching
with Jennifer Clement

Erin Soros writes fiction, nonfiction, poetry and theory. At UTV, she will be participating in the novel consultation with Jennifer Clement to get feedback on a complete manuscript set in a logging camp in the 1930s in British Columbia, which builds on oral and archival history. Soros was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University and a visiting writer at Cambridge. She researches psychosis and the psychiatric and police response to it. Her poetry received The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, inclusion in Best Canadian Poetry, silver at the National Magazine Awards and was a finalist for the CBC Literary Award.  Her lyric essay “Cord” received Gold at the National Magazine Awards for “One of a Kind Storytelling” and her narrative essay “Please Don’t Do This To Me” received the Writers’ Union Award for Short Prose. Her fiction received the CBC Literary Award and the Commonwealth Award for the Short Story. Find her online @ErinsoroS (formerly known as twitter) or @ErinSoros (instagram). Born and now living again in Vancouver, Canada, Soros teaches cultural studies and ethics at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, dresses in shades of periwinkle, sky blue and sea foam, and keeps fit by lifting weights at a small Eastside gym where she also drags tires back and forth across the parking lot of the Poor Italian restaurant.   

Cuévano, México

Coaching en Narrativa
con Socorro Venegas

Vive en la ciudad de Cuévano donde se luchó contra los españoles. Es escritor y traficante con sueños. ​Ganador de los Premios de Literatura León 2022, segundo lugar del Premio Estatal Victoriano Rodriguez en la categoría de cuento (2023). Co-autor de los libros: Cuentos para romper espejos (Ediciones Periféricas, 2019),  Cuentos para romper espejos Volumen II (Ediciones Periféricas, 2023), Haciendas y mezcaleros de Guanajuato (2024) y Gracias por escuchar (Resonancia Magazine, 2019).  Cuando no escribe ficción estudia Letras Españolas en la Universidad de Guanajuato y co-conduce el programa radio El vuelo de las letras. Cree en la poesía, el rock and roll y sobre todas las cosas: “los cuentos que nos contamos para poder vivir”.

Los Angeles, California

Writing of Witness
with Elizabeth Rosner

Words of Witness Fellowship

I am a writer whose work grapples with transgenerational trauma, memory and identity. I write from the interstice of my first-generation idealism and my grandmother’s Armenian villager-pragmatism. I write toward my own freedom and toward the freedom of all displaced peoples from Artsakh to Palestine and beyond. I write about grief and in times of grief because it is the most powerful articulation of love. I am the winner of Ninth Letter’s Creative Nonfiction Prize and my work appears in DIAGRAM journal. I am a lecturer at California State University, Northridge and live in Los Angeles with my dog, Bailey.

Tijuana, Mexico

Poesía
con Rafael Segovia

LA ESCRITURA ANHELADA FELLOWSHIP

Aunque nací en Guadalajara, el enamoramiento de mis padres me llevó desde Sonora y Nayarit hasta la ciudad de Tijuana, una ya muy distinta a la que podamos voltear a ver cuando leamos esto. Aprendí la música de la canción lo mismo que el reclamo que te llama a comer cuando la cena está servida o hay una buena historia que no debes perderte al fin de la jornada. Parece que aún hay tribu si uno presta atención. Y más allá, aquí, la vida que nos toca, como un reflejo de quien fuimos siempre.  He publicado poemas y colaboraciones como periodista cultural en medios nacionales y extranjeros, como la Revista de la Universidad de México, Buenos Aires Poetry, Río Grande Review de la Universidad de Texas en El Paso, Círculo de poesía, revista La Otra, Periódico de poesía de la UNAM, Revista Tierra Adentro, Este País, Otros Diálogos de El Colegio de México, el suplemento cultural La Jornada Semanal y en Poéticas – Revista de Estudios Literarios, editada en España. Algunos poemas míos fueron incluidos en el volumen “Hay algo, algo urgente que te tengo que decir, homenaje a William Carlos Williams”, publicado por Medusa Editores en 2022.

Queens, New York

Poetry
with Jennifer Clement

I am the author of two poetry collections: the bilingual English/Spanish What Remains / Qué queda (Editorial DALYA, forthcoming 2023), winner of the Dolors Alberola International Poetry Prize; and Rooted and Reduced to Dust (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming 2024).  At UTV’s master class with Jennifer Clement, I’ll complete the generative work and a first round of edits on my third collection. Following a twenty-year career at the intersection of health technology and public policy, I shifted my focus to writing and freelance editing, translation, and website design in 2021.  My poems explore evolving relationships to family and community, to individual and cultural bodies that live and die out.  Much of the “source material” for the poems root in my own experiences balancing feminisms and activism for Palestinian liberation with my Eastern European Jewish heritage and identity.  Though I’m mainly nomadic, Queens, New York will always be home.  Loves: baking artisan challah from scratch, hikes of any length, my delicious baby nephew.

Santa Fe, New Mexico / NYC

Writing Of Witness
with Elizabeth Rosner

A photographer much of my life, I turned to writing about 12 years ago when creating my presentation of The Black Madonna. While photography was greatly rewarding, especially as a semi-journalist in India and Kosovo, I have found a more enriching depth in the ability to write down my feelings. Born and brought up in New York City I, as the third and last child, disliked the unwritten rules that were presented to me by my dyed-in-the-wool Southern parents. My memoir, The Magnolia Code, published in 2020, is a story of my escape from the rules and the choices I have lived. I am proud to say that The Magnolia Code received many awards, including The Independent Press Award in the genre of Memoir. The past year I was asked to give a “talk” on the women I have photographed throughout the world and the impact this has had on me. My presentation, together with about 95 images, is entitled Through the Lens of my Camera: The Essence of Woman, and I will be “taking it on the road” in 2024, including New York City. At UTV, I will be continuing and hoping to finish a collection of Short Stories called The Swampyland, stories of the obstacles we face and the possibilities of overcoming them.

Tepoztlán, México

Coaching en narrativa
con Socorro Venegas

Nací en Monterrey, donde estudié Derecho. Viví en Beijing y en el “lejano oeste” chino durante cuatro años en los cuales participé en proyectos teatrales como dramaturgo y actor. En la Ciudad de México me enfoqué en escribir novela; a la par, trabajé como defensor de derechos humanos con personas migrantes y refugiadas. En el 2018 recibí la beca Jóvenes Creadores del FONCA en la categoría de novela. Ahora radico en Tepoztlán, desde donde busco publicar mis textos y colaboro en grupos comunitarios a favor de los derechos de las infancias. Tengo un gusto especial por la novela histórica, de viajes y la poesía, así como por llevar mi diario para todas partes. Me incorporaré al programa de Coaching en Narrativa. 

I was born in Monterrey, in Northern Mexico, where I majored in Law. I then lived in Beijing and in the Chinese “Far West” for several years in which I participated in theater festivals as playwright and actor. In Mexico City I focused on writing novels while working as a human rights defender for migrants and refugees. In 2018 I received a writing grant from the Culture Ministry (FONCA). I live now in Tepoztlan where I seek to publish my texts and collaborate with community groups to promote children rights. I have a special craving for historical and travel fiction as well as for poetry and journaling. I will take part in the Narrative Coaching program.

Houston, Texas / North Dakota

Poetry
with Jennifer Clement

Juan R. Palomo was born in North Dakota into a migrant farmworker family. He grew up in South Texas and various Midwestern states, working in the fields with his family. He spent most of his adult life as a journalist, writing news and opinion for The Houston Post, Austin American-Statesman and USA TODAY. His poems have appeared in Acentos Review; New Mexico Review; The Account Magazine; Bayou Review; Sonora Review; Amaranth Journal, Infrarrealista Review, Hinchas de Poesía; ReVista: the Harvard Review of Latin America; Crosswinds Journal; Voices de la Luna; Fifth Wednesday Journal’s anthology of Mexican American writers; and Cutthroat Journal’s anthology, Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21^st Century. He has been a featured poet at the Rothko Chapel and on “The Beat,” the Knox County (Tennessee) Library’s poetry podcast. His 2021 chapbook, Al Norte, was published by Alabrava Press. He lives in Houston.  

Juan R. Palomo nació en Dakota del Norte en una familia de trabajadores agrícolas migrantes. Creció en el sur de Texas y en varios estados del medio oeste de Estados Unidos, en donde trabajaba en el campo con su familia. Pasó la mayor parte de su vida adulta como periodista, escribiendo noticias y piezas de opinión para The Houston Post, Austin American-Statesman y USA TODAY. Sus poemas han aparecido en Acentos Review; New Mexico Review; The Account Magazine; Bayou Review; Sonora Review; Amaranth Journal, Infrarrealista Review, Hinchas de Poesía; ReVista: the Harvard Review of Latin America; Crosswinds Journal; Voices de la Luna; Anthology of Mexican American Writers (Fifth Wednesday Journal); y Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21^st Century (Cutthroat Journal). Ha leído sus poemas en la Capilla Rothko en Houston y en “The Beat,” el podcast de poesía de la biblioteca del condado de Knox (Tennessee). Su libro, Al Norte, fue publicado en 2021 por Alabrava Press. Actualmente vive en Houston.

Los Angeles, California

Writing of Witness 
with Elizabeth Rosner

I lived in Ithaca, New York, teaching literature at Ithaca College until I decided it was high time for adventure, and moved on to Southern California where I had two friends, no job, and a rich fantasy life. I began performing as a storyteller at venues around L.A., finding adventure, and becoming a college counselor at a private high school for children of the rich and bizarre. I’ve published a book of poems Almost Everything Takes Forever (Antrim House Press,) and dozens of creative non-fiction essays, one of which won “notable” in Best American Essays, 2019. A year ago, the L.A. Times published my essay on dating in Los Angeles. Currently I’m finishing a memoir about the struggles and pleasures of her life-changing move. I wrote “Valley of The Anthropocene: Canoga Park Animal Life,” essays on Substack  about home/not-home, mothering/not-mothering, and a local python named Big Mamma. This is my second time attending Under The Volcano, and I’m thrilled to be returning! 

Chicago, USA

Journalism
with Elisabeth Malkin

TRUTHTELLER JOURNALISM FELLOW

I’m a senior bilingual journalist for Chicago Tribune. Journalism is more than a job for me, it is a vocation. A passion that drives me to believe that the world can be better if we find ways to connect with one another. That’s is why I added my second last name to my byline. Presa is my grandpa’s last name and he was the first one to emigrate to the United States from Mexico; it is a symbol of perseverance and love. I thank God for my family and the friends that surround me. They’re always there to celebrate me in my career accomplishments, but even more present through life experiences. They were, always unconditionally by my side when my dad passed away but also when I traveled to Tequila, Jalisco to celebrate my 30th birthday. I hold Mexico close to my heart because it is the home to my grandparents. Though far away from home, I keep it close to my heart. Through my writing, in the music I listen to and the books I read. I enjoy running and art exhibitions. And most recently, Donnie, my dog has reaffirmed me that love is beyond words. 

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Prose Manuscript Coaching
With Jennfier Clements

Linda Backiel has lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she has practiced as a criminal defense and civil rights attorney for the past 30 years. She is a Volcanista reincidente (“repeat offender”), and has also been inspired by Sandra Cisneros’s Macondo (in addition to the one she lives in), and the magical Mayra Santos Febres. Alas, she remains a very accidental (as birds infrequently seen in a particular location) writer. She needs to develop a narrativa about her beloved island universe (Vieques), but in odd moments, still flings off poems which she is now trying to save from extinction by corraling them into a manuscript. Help!

Linda Backiel ha residido en San Juan, Puerto Rico, donde ejerce desde hace 30 años el derecho penal. Es una Volcanista reincidente, y también ha gozado de las inspiraciones de Sandra Cisneros en Macondo (además de la en la cual reside), y la maga Mayra Santos Febres. Desgraciadamente, sigue siendo una escritora accidental (como los pájaros que aparecen donde no se supone) (o mejor dicho, accidentada). Necesita desarrollar una narrativa sobre su querida Isla Nena de Vieques, pero en los momentos sueltos, está todavía lanzando poemas, los cuales ahora intenta rescatar, metiéndolos en un corral que se denomina manuscrito. ¡Socorro!

Brooklyn, New York

Poetry Manuscript Coaching
with Keetje Kuipers

DREAMING OF POETRY FELLOWSHIP

I am a poet, translator and educator based in New York City. My writing explores postcolonial legacy, hybridity, magical realism, counter-imperialisms, transnational solidarity movements, folklore, mythology and dreams. My work has been featured in Four Way Review, MIZNA, The Rumpus, Salt Hill Journal, The Best Small Fictions Anthology 2023 and others, and in programs for the Brooklyn Rail, Method Bandra, The Poetry Society of New York and The New York Foundation for the Arts.  I serve as the programs coordinator for the arts organization Tamaas | تماس, and as a senior editor for Poetry Northwest, where I direct poetry workshops and educational programming to transform racial equity in literary publishing. I also curate The New Third World, a traveling poetry reading series inspired by the Non-Aligned Movement and the history of friendship and solidarity across distance among emergent postcolonial nations.

Dallas, Texas / Chihuahua, Mexico

Journalism
with Elisabeth Malkin

ROBERT L. BREEN JOURNALISM FELLOW

I am a local government accountability reporter at The Dallas Morning News, focusing on initiatives that directly impact the Latino community in Dallas. Before this, I worked as a reporter at Al Día, where I wrote in Spanish about local issues and immigration policies for the Hispanic community in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso, and during my time there, I had the opportunity to intern for El Paso Matters. I participated in the 2021 NextGen Project, the ProPublica Emerging Reporters 2020 cohort, and the NAHJ Student Project in 2020. I was born and raised in Chihuahua, where my passion for journalism took root. In my free time, I train for half marathons, with the ultimate goal of running a full marathon soon.

Ciudad de México

Narrativa
con Alberto Chimal

Escritora chilanga. Nací en la Ciudad de México y llevo toda mi vida habitando entre el caos, los edificios y el tráfico. Comencé a leer y escribir desde niña, influenciada por mi abuela, Mónica de Neymet, quien dedicó su vida a enseñar literatura en la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UNAM. Recuerdo pasar tardes enteras con ella, leyendo La Isla del Tesoro de Stevenson o El Libro Salvaje de Juan Villoro.  Fue a partir de los 15 años que empecé a escribir cuento y, unos años después, novela. Me interesan los temas relacionados con las violencias de distintos tamaños, los augurios, los recuerdos y la cultura pop. Actualmente escribo sobre espacios liminales, televisión mexicana -y todo lo llamado lost media-  y recuerdos de infancia. Recientemente terminé una beca de narrativa en la Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas, y antes de ello trabajé como asistente de investigación en una incubadora de investigaciones periodísticas de largo aliento. Estudié Ciencias Políticas pero no ejerzo. Me gusta ver películas, andar en bicicleta, hacer yoga, tomar fotos y, por supuesto, saludar a todos los perritos que me encuentre en la calle. 

Xalapa, Veracruz

Escritura y Testimonio
con Sandra Lorenzano

Marisol García Walls is a Mexican writer, curator and independent researcher born in Mexico City and currently living in Xalapa, Veracruz. Her main interests are material culture and intermedia relationships, as well as the exploration of gender violence and emerging resistance within post-colonial cultural contexts. As a writer, her focus is the relationship between the body and objectual/documental practices, employing archives as the core of her creative process. Objects and documents are seen as a scaffold for memory, crafting narratives that move from the micro to the macro, in terms of personal and collective histories. As a curator, she examines the archive as a multi-media device that allows her to translate research enquiries into a visual language.

Marisol García Walls es una escritora, curadora e investigadora independiente nacida en la Ciudad de México y que vive actualmente en Xalapa, Veracruz. Sus principales intereses son la cultura material y las relaciones intermediales, así como la exploración de la violencia de género y la resistencia emergente dentro de los contextos culturales poscoloniales. Como escritora, su enfoque es la relación entre el cuerpo y las prácticas objetuales y documentales, empleando los archivos como el núcleo de su proceso creativo. Los objetos y documentos se examinan como un andamio para la memoria, elaborando narrativas que pasan de lo micro a la macro en términos de historias personales y colectivas. Como curadora, se enfoca en prácticas de archivo como un dispositivo multimedia que le permite traducir sus investigaciones en un lenguaje visual.

Mexico City

Narrativa
con Alberto Chimal

VOZ VIVA FELLOWSHIP

Soy escritora. Escribo una gran cantidad de minutas, informes, reportes y notas, además de aquellos textos que expresan mi propia voz, aunque hoy en día, siento que todo texto, así sea una simple minuta, expresa algo de mí y se convierte en objeto de mi obsesión. Pero el gozo de la escritura, en mi experiencia, se despliega en la ficción. Soy autora de la novela Guerra de Guerrillas, de dos libros de cuentos, Luz brillante y Cuentos para leer en autobús; y del libro de poesía Carta Natal (Ícaro, 2022). Actualmente vivo en la Ciudad de México, pero viajo varias veces al año a otras comunidades rurales y urbanas para trabajar en proyectos de fortalecimiento comunitario, lo cual me nutre profundamente. Desde hace dos años me animé a explorar el mundo de las artes marciales mixtas y aunque sigo resistiéndome a las caídas del judo, próximamente haré las pruebas para mi cuarto cambio de cinta. ¡Atinar y asestar un buen golpe es altamente satisfactorio!

Toronto, Canada / Lake Chapala, Mexico

Fiction
with Sheree Renée Thomas

I am from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My mom is an artist from Brooklyn. My dad is a retired photographer who studied at Pratt, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Adolescence happened in Toronto, where we moved in the 80s, and Montréal, where I went to university. I was a working actor in my teens, then a student of carbon science, years later, during my master’s at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Forestry. In between it all, I’ve tended to write magic realism fiction. In Montréal, while studying creative writing, film and art history for my undergrad degree, I was reading Chekhov, Jim Carroll, Ferlinghetti, Tristan Tzara… and into Italian neorealist cinema. I adapted some of my short fiction into screenplays, capriciously dreaming of a life in screenwriting. But hastily abandoned the endeavor to go to graduate school. At a point, perhaps my life was on a trajectory to becoming a full-time writer. But a few characters and detours led to my involvement developing renewable carbon, and years renovating a hacienda on a lake south of Guadalajara. I found UTV so that I might ignore my relentless imagination a little less, and continue a work of magic realism, based on bits of history, that relates to the ancestral home of my family; Kyivan Rus.

Yerevan, Armenia / Toronto, Canada

Poetry Manuscript Coaching 
With Keetje Kuipers

I was born and raised in Toronto to Armenian parents from Lebanon. In 2007, I came to Armenia for what was supposed to be a five-month volunteer internship, and (minus a couple of short stints in the US) I’ve been living here since. It’s an uncertain, existentially troubling time in Armenia right now, and I try to make sense of it all by listening to and telling stories. I co-founded the Tumanyan International Storytelling Festival, which takes place every summer in the mountains of northern Armenia. And I co-produce Country of Dust, a narrative podcast about life in a changing Armenia. My writing is published or forthcoming in the New York Times, Mizna, Poetry Northwest, Audubon Magazine, and others. At Under the Volcano, I’ll be joining the Poetry Manuscript Coaching cohort with Keetje Kuipers. I’m working on a collection of poetry and prose that explores landscapes of resistance, uprootedness, and how these forces can shape our lives – the rifts and the growth that can emerge. I’m digging deep into my family’s story of survival through the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the forced displacement that the indigenous Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have faced just in the past few months, and all that courses through and between these two ruptures. 

Monterrey, Nuevo León 

Escritura y Testimonio 
con Sandra Lorenzano 

Soy escritora primeriza y estudiante de Letras Hispánicas del noreste de México. Mi infancia se dividió entre el pueblo ganadero de mis abuelos y la zona costera del golfo de Tamaulipas. Actualmente, resido y trabajo como copywriter en la ciudad de Monterrey. También he trabajado como redactora para el Observatorio de Innovación Educativa, escribiendo artículos sobre la equidad en la educación superior de América Latina. En 2022, fui estudiante de verano en el COLMEX y, desde hace año y medio, colaboro en la antología didáctica de la Fundación Paseo de la Mujer Mexicana con textos que rescatan la memoria de mujeres sobresalientes en la historia de México. Cuando no estoy escribiendo o leyendo, me gusta tomar fotos en film y hacer videodiarios explorando la ciudad con mis amigas. 

I am an aspiring writer and Hispanic Literature student from Northeastern Mexico. My childhood was split between my grandparents’ rural town and the coastal region of the Gulf of Tamaulipas. Currently, I reside and work as a copywriter in the city of Monterrey. I have also contributed as a writer for the Observatory of Educational Innovation, where I wrote articles on equity in higher education in Latin America. In 2022, I was a summer student at COLMEX, and for the last year and a half, I have been contributing to the educational short story publication of the Fundación Paseo de la Mujer Mexicana. My work there involves writing texts that rescue the memory of outstanding women in the history of Mexico. When I’m not writing or reading, I enjoy taking photos on film and making video diaries while exploring the city with my friends.

Los Angeles, California

Prose Manuscript Coaching
with Jennifer Clement

SANDRA CISNEROS FELLOWSHIP

I was born and raised in East Los Angeles and currently live in the Highland Park area.  I was a teenager during the movimiento Chicano, which is reflected in my novel-in-progress and published short stories.  Many of the people I write about are long gone and forgotten, dead or killed in barrio violence.  I want readers to know them as they were:  sons and daughters filled with longing, love and pain.  Not heroes, yet heroic in their struggle against systems much larger than themselves.  I’ve been riding motorcycles for over fifty years and currently have a Road Star 1600 with a sidecar that I call my queen’s chariot.  My life is blessed with my wife, Mary, and our daughter Alicia.

Mexico City

Journalism 
with Elisabeth Malkin

Born and raised in Mexico City, finished a PhD in epigenetics but felt that something was missing from academic life, I changed gears and landed a job as a data journalist where I met an amazing team with whom we won the Inter American Press Society price for a piece about latin American retirement pension money destinations. This career shifting event made me realize that journalism marries my long standing need to disclose information like science did, and my love for storytelling. I enjoy analyzing quantitative data and I have worked with themes around gender inequalities in public health issues, glass ceiling in academic environments, public contracting and urban development.

North Carolina / Nigeria

Poetry Manuscript Coaching
with Keetje Kuipers

Recipient of the Black Writers Matter Fund

I am a Black, nonbinary poet from Nigeria. I have a Bachelor’s of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2023, I was a Tin House Summer Scholar and had the pleasure of attending the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference. I have received some cool awards for my writing, notably a University & College Poetry Prize from The Academy of American Poets and semi-finalist for the 2023 Pablo Neruda Prize in Poetry from Nimrod International Journal. I have individual poems published or forthcoming in Shō Poetry Journal, Poets.org, Nimrod International Journal, Driftwood Press, and Allium: A Journal of Poetry & Prose, among others. My poetry is inspired by my experience as a Black, queer, Nigerian immigrant, and by my fascination with magic and beauty as it translates to writing. I like to write about family, spirituality, nature, gender, love, death, and dreams. At UtV I will be doing generative work and revisioning of my first poetry collection, a work that is heavily influenced by my personal identities, and that contemplates my relationship to death and the beyond. Aside from poetry, I am a big fan of apocalyptic literature.

Mexico City

Narrativa
con Alberto Chimal

It was the 70s and I used to walk into my dad’s library, with a Bimbo bread in one hand and a coffee with condensed milk in the other. Yes, it is clear that my diet was a living example of the industrial customs that were beginning to invade the suburbs of Guadalajara. And my spiritual nourishment had to do with a doctor father who was excited about literature. I opened the books and came across a poem by González Martínez, that called to strangle some swan with deceptive plumage, and then with Fuentes, Paz, Ibargüengoitia and fortunately my dad returned with the new releases from Vargas Llosa, García Márquez and even José Agustín from his visits to the downtown bookstores. As a child I wanted to live in that library and now I want to tell those moments from the last century, because we should have learned something.

Eran los años 70 y yo entraba a la biblioteca de mi papá, con un pan Bimbo en una mano y un café con leche condensada en la otra. Sí, se nota que mi alimentación fue un vivo ejemplo de las costumbres industriales que empezaban a invadir los suburbios de Guadalajara. Y mi alimentación espiritual tuvo que ver con un papá médico emocionado con la literatura. Abría los libros y me topaba con un llamado a torcerle el cuello al cisne de engañoso plumaje, un poema de González Martínez, y después con Fuentes, Paz, Ibargüengoitia y afortunadamente mi papá volvía con las novedades de Vargas Llosa, García Márquez y hasta José Agustín de sus visitas a las librerías del centro. De niño quería vivir en esa biblioteca y ahora quiero contar esos momentos del siglo pasado, porque algo debímos aprender. De mi carrera: practiqué el periodismo de economía y negocios y me aferré a las publicaciones periódicas en diversos medios hasta que sentí que ya no pertenecía. Quiero redescubrir la literatura pero ahora para comunicarme mejor.

Miami, Florida

Writing of Witness
with Elizabeth Rosner

By the time my parents and grandparents were my age, they had all abandoned their

homelands: survivors of World War I, the Spanish Civil War, and the Cuban Revolution. As a “Jewban” of mixed heritage, I grew up between the Caribbean, Europe and the U.S. in between the liminal dreamscapes of these places and their aftershocks. I didn’t inherit silver heirlooms. Instead, I grew up with a special virtue of freedom — something you can pack in a suitcase. Writer Adam Gopnik describes this gift as one that won’t make you richer and more powerful but allows you to understand what it means to be alive. Or rather: with a certain responsibility because I had survived. It’s no wonder I have worked almost the last two decades as a journalist, moved by the need to pursue facts, and exhume truths if necessary. But after a lifelong dedication to the witnessing of others, throughout a career that first began in Israel and has taken me to France and throughout the Americas, it is time to come home. If there ever is a place for people like me, it’s somewhere in the colors of memory. 

Cuando mis padres y abuelos hubieran cumplido mi edad, todos ya habían abandonado sus tierras: supervivientes de la Primera Guerra Mundial, la Guerra Civil Española y la Revolución Cubana. Como judía de herencia mixta me crié en el Caribe, Europa y Estados Unidos, entre los paisajes oníricos liminales de estos lugares y sus secuelas. No heredé reliquias de plata. En cambio, crecí con la virtud especial de la libertad, algo que no puedes guardar en una maleta, ni cabe en ningún espacio superior de la cabina. El escritor Adam Gopnik describe este regalo como uno que no te hará más rico ni más poderoso, pero te permitirá comprender lo que significa estar vivo. O, mejor dicho: con cierta responsabilidad por haber sobrevivido. No es de extrañar que haya trabajado casi las últimas dos décadas como periodista, impulsada por la

necesidad de investigar hechos y exhumar verdades de ser necesario. Pero después dedicarme a tiempo completo al testimonio de los demás, a lo largo de una carrera que comenzó en Israel y me ha llevado a Francia y a lo largo de América Latina, toca volver a casa. Si es que este existe para personas como yo, es en algún lugar entre los colores de la memoria.

Kansas City, Missouri 

Writing of Witness
with Elizabeth Rosner

I am a theologian, orator, and senior minister of a congregation in Kansas City.  I write extensively for the ear and have preached for 8 years, which is to say that I give a live original performance each week on the human condition. Some examples of topics are grief, humor, humility in the face of the infinite, addiction, awakening to systems of supremacy, and global accountability.  My work is built on the belief that any community can have a profound impact on the world and that each person is privileged to their own truth. I have deep relationships with my colleagues, neighbors, and friends; together we create spaces of intergenerational joy, collective grieving, embodiment, and repair. I live with my family on a quiet street with close neighbors. I love a good laugh, tasting my wife’s cooking, and reading. 

Soy teóloga, oradora, y ministra principal de una iglesia en Kansas City. Escribo extensamente para ser escuchada. Mis sermones han sido una obra en vivo cada semana por ocho años. El ser humano es el enfoque principal, como por ejemplo los  problemas de adicción, hacer conciencia de los sistemas de supremacía, el duelo, la humildad a en la cara del infinito; responsabilidad global, y el buen humor.  Mi trabajo se basa en la creencia que cualquier comunidad puede hacer un impacto profundo en el mundo, y que cada persona es privilegiada al tener sus propias verdades.  Tengo relaciones profundas con mis colegas, vecinos, y amigos.  Juntos creamos los espacios de alegría intergeneracional, duelo colectivo, reconocimiento corporal, y reparación. Vivo con mi familia en una calle muy tranquila con vecinos muy cercanos.  A mi me encanta una buena risa, saborear la comida de mi esposa, y leer.  

Ciudad de México, México

Poesía
con Rafael Segovia

Soy lectora, poeta y bailarina. Nací y crecí en la Ciudad de México, donde resido actualmente. Soy Licenciada en Letras Inglesas. Estoy interesada en descubrir todas las formas de la poesía. Mi poesía explora la muerte, el duelo, la enfermedad, el cuerpo, el concepto de hogar, la tristeza y su convergencia. Mi primer manuscrito, titulado EN EL JARDÍN, es una especie de bitácora naturalista que describe la manera en que he atravesado situaciones difíciles en mi vida a través de las imágenes de plantas, árboles y otros elementos presentes en la naturaleza y en el jardín de la casa de mi infancia. Durante mi estancia en UTV estaré trabajando un nuevo proyecto que busca profundizar en las vidas de las mujeres de mi familia y reflexionar acerca de cómo, en el futuro, podemos construir mejores redes de apoyo entre nosotras. Me encanta que las maravillas de la vida diaria me impacten.

I’m a reader, a poet, and a ballerina. I was born and raised in Mexico City, where I currently live. I’m an English major. I’m interested in discovering all the ways of poetry. My poetry explores death, grief, sickness, the body, the concept of home, sadness, and their convergence. My first manuscript, titled EN EL JARDÍN, is a kind of naturalist diary that describes the way in which I have lived past difficult situations during my life through the images of plants, trees and other elements present in nature and in my childhood’s house garden. During my stay at UTV I will be working on a new project intended to dig deeper into the lives of the women in my family and reflect upon how, in the future, we can build better support networks between us. I love being struck by the wonders of everyday life.

Ciudad de México, México

Narrativa 
con Alberto Chimal

Marciano, creativo, platónico. Escribo. Encuadro. ¡Acción! ¡Corte! ¡Queda! Fundador de la casa productora de cine independiente Marciano Films, director de su más reciente cortometraje Nimmedo. Me interesa la ciencia ficción: sus naves, tecnología, planetas, pero sobre todo quienes lo habitan. Así mismo me asombran quienes habitan este, mi planeta y las implicaciones sociales que eso conlleva como el hecho de considerar que un humano no puede cruzar una frontera imaginaria porque se considera inmigración. Yo fui inmigrante a los 6 años, cuando crucé la frontera para vivir en Reno, “La pequeña ciudad más grande del mundo”.

Marciano, creative, platonic. I write. Frame. Action! Cut! Print! Founder of the independent film production company Marciano Films, I directed it’s most recent short film Nimmedo. I’m interested in science fiction: the ships, technology, planets, but mostly the people that inhabit them. Therefore I’m amused by they who inhabit this one, my planet and the social implications that this represents, like the fact that no human can cross an imaginary line without being called an immigrant for doing so. I was an immigrant child at the age of 6, when I crossed the border to live in Reno “The biggest little city in the world”.

London, UK

Fiction
with Sheree Renée Thomas

Imagination Unbound Fellowship.

I was born and grew up in London but now live in Surrey, England, where there’s more greenery and slightly less public transport. I write science fiction and fantasy in lengths that vary from flash to novel. I’m an associate editor at EscapePod.com, where you can also find one of my published stories. I am a former research scientist who now has a day job analysing equality statistics and supporting scientists in their professional development. My genetics and molecular biology background comes through quite often in my writing. I am the mother of two small science-fiction fans and spend a fair amount of time engaged in lightsaber battles or debating time travel theory to the theme tune of Interstellar.

Nací y me crié en Londres, pero ahora vivo en Surrey, Inglaterra, donde hay más follaje y menos transporte público.  Escribo ciencia ficción y fantasia desde flash fiction a novelas. Soy editora en EscapePod.com, donde aparece uno de mis cuentos publicados. Antes investigadora científica, me dedico actualmente a analisar estadísticas sobre igualdad y a apoyar a los demás científicos en su desarrollo profesional. Mi formación en genética y biología se filtra a menudo en mis escritos.  Soy mamá de dos pequeños fans de la ciencia ficción y paso no poco tiempo en batallas lightsaber o debatiendo aspectos de la teoría de viajar en el tiempo con la musiquita de Interstellar.

Costa Rica / India

Writing Of Witness
with Elizabeth Rosner

Movement and change are a constant in my life. I was born in Massachusetts, leaving for Canada just a few months later. At age six I emigrated to India – the “brown Canadian” and then at ten to the U.S. In adulthood I have lived in Nepal, Malawi, Zambia, Honduras and the U.K while working on human rights in many more countries.   I moved to Costa Rica seven years ago with my husband, son and daughter. I want to write about  perspective and subjectivity.  I wrote about my mother in the book “Our Mothers Ourselves” and also about Nepal in Hippocampus.  I yearn to write stories based on my experiences that will challenge conventional ideas of identity and perspective. I  am doing a doctorate at the University of Costa Rica on Nicaraguan migrant workers, I listen to BBC Radio 6, play classical viola and piano and love hiking in the mountains. 

Siempre he existido dentro y fuera-, sin pertenecer del todo mientras flotaba en diferentes espacios culturales. Nací en Massachusetts en Estados Unidos; sin embargo muy pronto en mi infancia salí y viví en Canadá y la India. Cuando tenía 10 años regresé a los Estados – migrante al país de nacimiento. En mi carrera en derechos humanos he vivido en Malawi, Zambia, Nepal, Honduras y Reino Unido. Trabajé por corto plazo en muchos otros lugares.  Me trasladé a Costa Rica hace siete años con mi esposo, mi hijo y mi hija. En el tema de escritura, me atrae ahora más la subjetividad de experiencia. He escrito sobre mi madre en el libro “Our Mothers Ourselves” y también sobre Nepal en Hippocampus. Anhelo escribir sobre cómo nuestra comprensión de la realidad es siempre cambiante, diversa y fluida. Actualmente, estoy haciendo un Doctorado en la Universidad de Costa Rica y mi tema de estudio es sobre las trabajadoras domésticas de Nicaragua. Escucho Radio 6 de la BBC, toco la viola clásica y adoro hacer senderismo por las montañas.

Ciudad de México, México

Poesía 
con Rafael Segovia

Orgullosamente chilanga y al mismo tiempo bicultural del lado de mi familia materna española. He vivido en varios lugares alrededor del mundo así que mis alas están en muchos sitios pero mis raíces son mexicanas. Soy feminista, defensora de derechos humanos, mamá de una niña de casi 10 años y un cúmulo de contradicciones. Desde muy pequeña comencé a escribir poesía y mi sueño ha sido siempre poder dedicarle más tiempo y combinar esta faceta de mi vida con mi trabajo en la defensa de los derechos y la justicia social. La poesía para mi representa la posibilidad de recuperar la belleza y la esperanza en este mundo tan convulso.

Proudly “chilanga” and at the same time bicultural from my mother’s Spaniard family. I have lived in many places of the world, so my wings are in many places, but my roots are Mexican. I am a feminist, a human rights defender, the mom of a 10-year-old girl and an accumulation of contradictions. Since I was very little, I started writing poetry and my dream has always been to combine this facet of my life with my work on the defense of rights and social justice. Poetry represents the possibility of recovering beauty and hope in such a turbulent world.