Lisa Alvarez’s poetry and prose have appeared in Air/Light, Huizache, [Pank], the Los Angeles Times, Santa Monica Review and elsewhere. Her work has been included anthologies such as Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America (W.W. Norton) and adapted for the stage by L.A.’s New Short Fiction Series and Breath of Fire’s COVID Monologues. She has edited three anthologies, including Orange County: A Literary Field Guide, and most recently, Why to These Rocks: Fifty Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers, both published by Heyday Books. Through the decades, she has practiced a politically engaged public and performance art activism which ranges from guerrilla installations and performances to poster art and was most recently a contributor to the La Maestra exhibit at Crear Studio. She is a professor of English and Irvine Valley College and in the summers co-directs the Writers Workshops at the Community of Writers.
2021 Anthology Launch hosts
Photo Credit: Lipman, Suz
Meryl Natchez’s (’88, ’00, ’05, ’09, ’13) most recent book of poetry is Catwalk, June 2020, from Longship Press. Her translations include: Poems From the Stray Dog Café: Akhmatova, Mandelstam and Gumilev, and Tadeusz Borowski: Selected Poems. Her book of poetry, Jade Suit, appeared in 2001. Her work has appeared in “LA Review of Books,” “Hudson Review,” “Poetry Northwest,” “ZYZZYVA,” “American Journal of Poetry,” “Literary Matters,” “The Pinch Literary Review,” “The Comstock Review,” “Altanta Review,” “Lyric,” “Moth,” “Squaw Valley Community of Writers Poetry Review,” and many others, as well as the Tupelo Press anthology Cooking with the Muse, Against Forgetting: Poetry of Witness edited by Carolyn Forché, and America We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resiliance . She is on the board of the Marin Poetry Center and cofounded the non-profit, Opportunity Junction, now in its 16th year. She is on the board of Marin Poetry Center and blogs at www.merylnatchez.com.
