Jimmy Santiago Baca was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1952. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived with one of his grandparents for several years before being placed in an orphanage. He wound up living on the streets, and at the age of twenty-one he was convicted on charges of drug possession and incarcerated. He served six years in prison, four of them in isolation. During this time, Baca taught himself to read and write, and he began to compose poetry. A fellow inmate convinced him to submit some of his poems to Mother Jones magazine, then edited by Denise Levertov. Levertov printed Baca's poems and began corresponding with him, eventually finding a publisher for his first book. Immigrants in Our Own Land, Baca's first major collection, was highly praised. In 1987, his semi-autobiographical novel in verse, Martin and Meditations on the South Valley, received the American Book Award for poetry, bringing Baca international acclaim. A self-styled "poet of the people," Baca conducts writing workshops with children and adults at countless elementary, junior high and high schools, colleges, universities, reservations, barrio community centers, white ghettos, housing projects, correctional facilities and prisons from coast to coast.

Baca's poetry collections include C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans: Dream Boy's Story (Grove Press, 2002), Healing Earthquakes (2001), Set This Book on Fire (1999), In the Way of the Sun (1997), Black Mesa Poems (1995), Poems Taken from My Yard (1986), and What's Happening (1982). His memoir, A Place to Stand (2001), chronicles his troubled youth and the five-year jail-stint that brought about his personal transformation. Baca is also the author of a memoir, A Place to Stand: The Making of a Poet (2002); a collection of stories and essays, Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio (1992); a play, Los tres hijos de Julia (1991); and a screenplay, Bound by Honor, which was released by Hollywood Pictures in 1933.

You may write to him at baca@swcp.com

Rhina P. Espaillat
Dominican-born Rhina P. Espaillat has published eight collections of poetry, as well as several essays and stories, and translations between English and her native Spanish. Her honors include the Richard Wilbur Award, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Nemerov Sonnet Award, several of the Poetry Society of America's yearly awards, the Salome Urena de Henriquez Award from the Dominican Ministry of Culture and Education, and a citation from the Dominican Studies Association honoring her services to Dominican culture and education in the U. S. Espaillat lives in Newburyport, MA, where she is active with the Powow River Poets, a workshop and reading series she co-founded. 

You may write to her via email:rpespaillat@verizon.net

Ruth Lopez-Najera was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia. She presently resides in Milwaukee, WI where she belongs to the Women's Writers Circle. She has participated in numerous public readings both with the
Women's Circle and individually.

Her interest in poetry dates back to her childhood. She tried some poetry writing while in high school. She became a serious writer and began to share her poetry in the past seven years.

She pursued studies in Accounting, Economics and in 1982 received an MSW from University.

You may reach her by email rlopeznajera@yahoo.com

Beatriz Alba del Rio is a bilingual poet and lawyer. She has lived in Cambridge since 1982, a city she adores. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Beatriz won the 1st Prize of the 2002 Octavio Paz International poetry Contest (Poem: "Ser" = "To be"), the 3rd Prize of the 2003 Pablo Neruda International poetry Contest ( Poem "Tristeza de Abril"= "April blues" and the 2004 Cambridge Poetry award with the poem MASKS OVER MASKS in the category "female erotic poem" and her poem "Black Crows" was nominated in the category "female love poem." Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies and literary magazines. As a lawyer, Beatriz represents abused and neglected children and parents, mediates conflicts between families, and does some international work. Beatriz' languages: Spanish, English, French. She understands Portuguese and Italian. Beatriz' mission as a lawyer is to help people to create better lives. Her poetry speaks of longings. Some of her poems are songs to love and to the unity of us all.

If you would like to contact Beatriz you may write to her by email c/o BAdelrio@aol.com please put her name in the subject line

Salinas was born in Robstown, Texas, and his Tex-Mex bordertown roots are vital to the man and the poet he was to become. As a teenager he moved with his family to California. After receiving a high school diploma from Bakersfield High School, he attended Bakersfield City College, where he earned an Associate of Arts degree in History. After attending California State University at Los Angeles, where he studied under Henri Coulette, he transferred to California State University Fresno (then called Fresno State College), where he studied under Philip Levine, Robert Mezey, and Peter Everwine. As a student at Fresno State College he published his first book, Crazy Gypsy, which sold 4,000 copies in a few months and earned him recognition both as a Chicano poet and as one of the leaders of the "Fresno School" of poets, which included Gary Soto, Ernesto Trejo, Leonard Adame and others, in the early 1970s. He eventually dropped out of college, taking several odd jobs to support himself while writing, but later in life he returned to teach poetry at California State University Fresno. In 1987 Salinas was invited to read before the Library of Congress.

Christopher Buckley, the chair of the creative writing department at the University of California Irvine, and also a poet, has called Salinas one of the two or three most important Chicano poets writing today. Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez, Director of the Roberto Hernandez Center for U.S. Latino Studies at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, lists Crazy Gypsy as one of the "Historical Landmarks in Chicano Literature." The Julian Samora Research Institute lists Crazy Gypsy under "A Rich Tradition Continues." Salinas recently had his biography published in American Writers, A Collection of Literary Biographies, Supplement XIII, edited by Jay Parini and compiled and written by Christopher Buckley. American Writers is available in fine libraries across the nation. Luis Omar Salinas is a poet of note, not just in Chicano literature, not just in American literature, but in world literature: period, exclamation mark!

You may find more about him at his website:
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Luis_Omar_Salinas_Poetry_Picture_Bio.htm