BIO
liz gonzález is the author of the creative nonfiction chapbook The Original OLG: San Bernardino's First Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, (Los Nietos Press forthcoming); the multigenre 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 writing appears in various journals and anthologies, including Inlandia: A Literary Journey, HTI Open Plaza, Air/Light, Poets & Writers Magazine, and the anthology San Bernardino Singing.
Her honors include a 2023 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship; 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.
liz serves on the Inlandia Institute Publication Committee and Board. She is a member of Macondo Writers Workshop and Women Who Submit. She teaches creative writing at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program and lives in Long Beach, CA, with her spouse, the bio medical research scientist and musician Jorge Martin, and their talkative and demanding tortie cat Espresso.
Born and raised in the San Bernardino Valley, liz has lived in California all her life except for one year when she served as the 1999/2000 Writer in Residence at the Phoenix College Creative Writing Program. Her roots in San Bernardino reach back to her maternal second great-grandparents Brigida Ceballos and Francisco Rosales, who arrived in the city in 1910, if not earlier. Her current work explores U.S. Mexican history through the lens of her multigenerational family's experiences.
A literary and arts activist for over 30 years, liz has mentored writers; organized literary readings and conducted creative writing workshops at a variety of settings, such as public libraries, community centers, colleges and universities, and elementary schools; participated on literary panels; and served as a judge for creative writing awards, book awards, artist fellowships, and a writing residency. With her spouse Jorge, she founded, Uptown Word & Arts, promoting literacy and supporting the arts from 2015-2019. In 2016, she founded Women's Write Inn—a rotating group of women poets and writers who write together, workshop, and support each other. They've met weekly on Zoom since April 2020.
She received her MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College, her BA in Theatre Arts: Acting and Directing from CSU Los Angeles, her AA in Liberal Arts from San Bernardino Valley College, and her certificate in Medical Office Management from United Health Careers in San Bernardino.
