Melinda Palacio grew up in South-Central Los Angeles and now lives in Santa Barbara and New Orleans. She holds two degrees in Comparative Literature-a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Master’s from UC Santa Cruz. She writes a column for La Bloga. She is a 2007 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alum of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers.
Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The East Valley and Scottsdale Tribune, Askew Poetry Journal, BorderSenses, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Buffalo Carp, Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, Maple Leaf Rag III and IV: An Anthology of Poems, the Naugatuck River Review, New Poets of the American West: An Anthology of Eleven Western States, Oranges and Sardines Poets and Artists, PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, Pilgrimage Magazine, Quercus Review, Strange Cargo: an Emerging Voices Anthology 1997-2010, San Diego Poetry Annual 2010-11, the San Pedro River Review, Squaw Valley Review, and forthcoming in Bop, Strut, Dance: A Post-Blues Form for New Generations and Southern Poetry Anthology IV: Louisiana (Texas Review Press 2011). Her poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, is the Sense of Place winner, Kulupi Press, 2009. Arizona State University Bilingual Press published her first novel, Ocotillo Dreams, August 2011. Tia Chucha Press will publish her forthcoming poetry book, How Fire Is A Story, Waiting. She is working on a new novel.
Contact: www.melindapalacio.com
