Welcome! Thanks for visiting my site.
A few things about me that aren't included in my formal bio below:
A fourth generation Southern Californian, I was born and raised in the San Bernardino Valley—currently, my main muses are the place, its underheard history, and my Mexican immigrant and Mexican American family's history there: all three are intertwined. I now live in Long Beach with Espresso, a talkative tortie cat, and Jorge Martin, a scientist and musician. A So Cal gal to the bone, I love to hike in the chaparral and bike on the coast. Tending my succulent and rose garden soothes me and inspires my writing. While I miss gatherings with friends and familia and cultural arts events, I really miss going to places where I can dance. Funk, rock, R&B, Latin jazz—if it has a good beat, I'm moving my feet. For now, I groove alone in my living room, but as soon as it's safe, I'll be dancing in front of live bands again.
liz gonzález writes creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. She is the author of the historical creative nonfiction essay chapbook The Original OLG: The First Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Bernardino, forthcoming from Los Nietos Press; the multi-genre book Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected (Los Nietos Press 2018); and the poetry collection Beneath Bone (Manifest Press 2000). Her creative nonfiction has appeared in Air/Light, Poets & Writers Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the anthology San Bernardino Singing, among others. Her poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies and recently appeared in The International Literary Quarterly and the anthologies What They Leave Behind, Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, and Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California.
liz is grateful to organizations that have supported her with the gift funding, space, time, meals, and/or communidad, including the Arts Council for Long Beach Incite / Insight Award for her work in the North Long Beach through Uptown Word & Arts, the literary and arts series she co-founded; an Arts Council for Long Beach Professional Artist Fellowship; an Elizabeth George Foundation Artistic Grant; an Irvine Fellowship at the Lucas Artists Residency Program; and residencies at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, and Macondo's Casa Azul.
A creative writing and community activist, since 1993 liz has presented her writing; participated on literary panels; conducted creative writing workshops at a variety of settings, including universities and colleges, conferences, public libraries, community centers, and elementary schools; and served as a judge on panels for creative writing awards, book awards, artist fellowships, and a writing residency. She is the founder of Women's Write Inn, a group of women poets and writers who meet to write and support each other—meeting since 2016, virtually since March 2020; and a co-founder, with her spouse Jorge, of Uptown Word & Arts, promoting literacy and supporting the arts since 2015—currently inactive due to COVID-19. She has been a member of Macondo Writers Workshop since 2006, and she serves on the Inlandia Institute Publication Committee.
liz teaches creative writing at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
She holds an MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College, a BA in Theatre Arts: Acting and Directing from CSU Los Angeles, an AA in Liberal Arts from San Bernardino Valley College, and a certificate in Medical Office Management from United Health Careers in San Bernardino.
