Verónica Reyes

Born in the early 1970s in East Los Angeles to Natividad Avalos Reyes and Julia Socorro Hernández Reyes, "in the Maravilla area beneath the two jails and near the I-710 Freeway".[2] She has previously lived in El Paso, Texas and in Toronto, but has always come back to East LA area and called it home.

Writing since she was 14 years old, Reyes kept "writing in the moment",[2] but didn't know she was writing poetry. At 18 years old in 1987, she lost her mother and it changed the course of her life. She stated, "It paved my road in life as a poet and educator."[2] When she graduated high school and it was time to enter college, she was unable to do so as she could not get admittance into university due to her English scores. Reyes credits the Educational Opportunity Program with helping her pass the third time. She has since gone on to receive a BA from Long Beach State University (1995) and a MFA in creative writing from University of Texas, El Paso (2000).[3]

Reyes has worked for El Paso Community College (Rio Grande and Valle Verde campuses), Humber College, Long Beach City College's Upward Bound program, and currently, California State University, Los Angeles[2][4]

She describes herself as a "Chicana feminist jota poet from East Los Angeles."[3] and states, "I write for Mexicanos, Chicanas/os, for the next generation to see/read pieces that looked like us. That embodied us. I write to add the stories I know and understand and say this is us, the gente from North Sydney Drive. This was how we lived. We exist. We matter. This is our story[1]".

Reyes is a member of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social and the Macondo Writers’ Workshop.[1][5]

Reyes won the International Latino Book Award in 2014, Golden Crown Literary Society Award in 2014 and a finalist for Lambda Literary Award in 2014 for her book. Reyes also won AWP Intro Journals Project award in 1999 and was a finalist for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.[1]

Poems and written works can be found in the following published mediums:[3]