About Me

It took me a while to figure out I wanted to write, because up until I was twenty years old I thought all writers were dead, white and male. And also because since I was a kid my mother said she didn’t care what I did with my future as long as I went to college and made enough money to take care of myself. So I only imagined a life paths that could support me and maybe even my entire Dominican family. One thing I did know early on is that I was a creative. I went to Fiorello La Guardia High School of Music and Art despite my mother’s wishes who would have been happier if I had chosen Cabrini Catholic High School. It was also walking distance from our apartment. I sold La Guardia to my mother with the fact that it was free and “specialized” and went there and barely graduated because I would cut classes to work in retail clothing stores on Columbus Avenue. With a passion for Fashion, I decided to attend  F.I.T. and study design, thinking Oscar De La Renta is Dominican, maybe it’s something I could do too. I was terrible at it, but continued working in retail stores, doing everything from sales, window display and merchandising. It was while working in fashion that I realized I wanted to write and I decided to pursue an English Degree at SUNY Binghamton. For years designing windows  afforded me to attend both Binghamton and then NYU and pursue my MFA. While a student at NYU, I co-founded WILL: Women In LIterature & Letters, a collective of women writers who used literature as a tool toward collective action. In 2001, I published my first novel, Soledad and in 2005, Let It Rain Coffee. My activism and writing has awarded me a number of grants, residencies and nominations, including The Camargo Fellowship, Yaddo, New York Foundation for The Arts Grant, Van Lier Literary Fellowship, The Barbara Deming Award. I have also contributed shorter works to Colorlines, Callaloo Lit. Journal, Indiana Review, New York Times.  These days, I teach Creative Writing at Texas A&M University and coordinate the TAMU Brazos Valley Reads Program, a literacy effort in Bryan/College Station. I also recently guest edited the new arts/activist journal, Vandal.  I am working on my third novel, In Search For Caridad, and a collection of short stories. I split my time between, New York,  Turin, Italy and Texas.