Here are some of my poems and a fiction story I've written. Check back -- I'll be adding links to online articles I'm writing as a freelancer.
A little about me as a writer: In 1998, I graduated from the Creative Writing Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. I started in the Poetry side of the program, but switched gears halfway through and ended up producing a split thesis. Some of the work here is from that thesis. In 1999, I won an award in Fiction from the Maryland State Arts Council. That story, the Mañana Girl, is here, too.
The Mañana Girl -- The first story in what I hope will be a Novita, a super-short novel in which every chapter can also function independently as a short story.
My poems generally fall into three categories: Familial, the Woman's Voice, and the Border Child poems. This is not a conscious act of imposing structure when I write poetry; rather, these are the themes that emerge from my life and the act of writing. Of course, these themes intertwine.
Abuela -- Literally, "Grandmother." This short poem is about my Mexican grandmother who bore eleven children, but raised only seven.
Sisters -- In keeping with the theme, a poem about childhood with my sister.
Love Poem -- A loose "shape" poem.
Rust -- A sonnet.
Sonambulist -- For anyone who survived college.
Patria Chica -- A page-length poem written during the quincentennary.
Southwest Passage -- A poem about being "between borders," as Gloria Anzaldúa says in her magnificent book Borderlands.