Registered Poets of the 18th Annual Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival 2025
(Apr. 24- Apr.27, 2025)
Adela Najarro
Adela Najarro has published four poetry collections: Volcanic Interruptions, My Childrens, Twice Told Over, and Split Geography. The Letras Latinas/ Red Hen Collaborative selected Variations in Blue for publication in 2025. Her extended family left Nicaragua and arrived in San Francisco during the 1940s; after the fall of the Somoza regime, the last of the family settled in the Los Angeles area. The California Arts Council has recognized her as an established artist and appointed her an Individual Artist Fellow. Luis Angel Treviño I am L.A. Trev. (Luis Angel Treviño) I am typically a epic fantasy writer but I try to learn all forms of literacy.
Ben Salinas
Ben Salinas is an educator and writer based in Edinburg Texas. He has written for online publication Ouch My Ego! and produced copy for 9ine 5ive 6eis. When not working he is usually cooking or gardening.
Carlos Rubio
Carlos Rubio is a poet.
Ceci M. Valdez
Ceci M. Valdez is an artist, writer, and seasoned educator. Among several recognitions she’s received, she was named 2017 High School Teacher of the Year and, most recently, awarded for her poetry at the 2025 The Moon as Muse juried exhibition. Her work can be seen on display at the South Texas College Library Gallery, and one of her poems will be published in the upcoming Boundless 2025: The Anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival. Ceci happily shares her life with her husband, Rudy, in Mission, Texas.
Crischelle Navalta Barnes
Crischelle Navalta Barnes is an educator and poet based in Edinburg. She is a proud Ilocana and Filipino American. Her poems, in free verse, are often autobiographical in nature.
Daniel García Ordaz
TEDx Speaker Daniel García Ordaz, a.k.a. The Poet Mariachi, is a McAllen Poet Laureate emeritus. His work has been taught and written about by academics across the U.S. and abroad and he is a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee. García earned an MFA in Creative Writing, a terminal degree, from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is also a high school English teacher and part of the dual enrollment faculty at South Texas College. García is a songwriter, former journalist, photographicationisticator, and word-maker-upper. García appears in the documentary, "ALTAR: Cruzando fronteras/Building bridges." He is the founder of the Rio Grande Valley Int'l. Poetry Festival. García served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman.
Eddie Reyes
Eddie Reyes is a Latino Army veteran whose poetry confronts trauma, identity, and societal power structures with unflinching honesty. His work explores the internal landscapes of conflict and resilience, drawing on personal experience to create visceral and emotionally resonant verses. He uses bold imagery and a fragmented style to convey the complexities of modern existence.
Edward Vidaurre
Edward Vidaurre is the author of nine collections of poetry. Vidaurre’s poems have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Avalon Literary Review, The Acentos Review, Poetrybay, as well as other journals and anthologies. He is the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, TX Poet Laureate and publisher of FlowerSong Press and its sister imprint Juventud Press. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times and was a finalist for Poet Laureate for the state of Texas. Vidaurre has been a judge for submissions for the Houston Poetry Festival, Director of Operations for the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, and editor of Cutthroat, a journal of the arts. His book Jazzhouse Won the Award of Merit 2020 by The Philosophical Society of Texas for Best Book of Poetry by a Texas Author. His book Pandemia & Other Poems was a finalist for the Writers' League of Texas Book Awards.
Felicia Lopez
Felicia Lopez is an award winning RGV author with her debut self-published book called "In Space and Time" available on Amazon. She is passionate about reading, writing, and storytelling. She strives to inspire others through captivating narratives and life experiences.
Guy S Duke
Guy S Duke is a nonbinary poet, photographer, artist, and archaeologist originally from Western Canada, now living in McAllen, TX. They have been writing for over three decades, self-publishing the zines Collective Insanity in Canada the ‘90s and early ’00s and Gender Non-Compliant in Texas in summer 2024.
J. Villanueva
J. Villanueva is a Chicano writer/poet from deep south Texas. J. has words featured or forthcoming in The Iowa Review, Huizache, The Acentos Review, Taco Bell Quarterly, and more. He earned his MFA at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's Creative Writing Program. You can follow him on social media @jay_theaztec.
Javier Villarreal
Javier Villarreal. Profesor emérito de español. Poeta, ensayista, traductor, fotógrafo. Autor de Entre lluvia, canto y flor (2008). Su obra ha sido incluida en diferentes antologías, revistas académicas y de creación literaria. En 2016 editó el poemario Voz de amor de Servando Cárdenas. Perfiles del silencio, su más reciente poemario, apareció en 2020. Tentempiés, su obra por venir, es una colección de epigramas, poemínimos y haikús. Por ocho años fue miembro de la mesa directiva que organizaba el People´s Poetry Festival en la ciudad de Corpus Christi, Texas. En la actualidad, se dedica a organizar diversos eventos literarios y a la fotografía en el sur de Texas.
Jeannette Zallar
Jeannette Zallar was born on August 20th, 1987, in San Benito, Texas. Raised by Roy and Nelda Zallar, Jeannette went through hardships throughout their life. Their specialties lie within storytelling, with a focus on life and culture. Astraia Rodriguez is a pen name which honors both past and present lives.
Jennifer D. Villegas
Through her writing, Jennifer D. Villegas delves into the intricacies of traumatic experiences and the ways in which individuals can tap into their inner strength to overcome them.
Joann González
Joann González descends from a strong line of women. Her voice, more than just her own, represents the voices of her foremothers. Joann writes so that voice remains alive, not only in herself but inside other strong women alike.
José Luis Moreno
José Luis Moreno, no es un poeta, es un aficionado a la poesía clásica de arte mayor y menor. Es de Reynosa Tamaulipas. Cuenta con un libro publicado La Poesía pide la palabra y escribe para la revista Ecos Literarios, José Luis Calderón Vela de León Guanajuato. En 2023 FlowerSong Press en la antología Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Boundless 2023 publicó una plegaria más de su autoría.
Julia-Paz Garza
Julia-Paz is an educator that has a been a published poet for three years. Her work centers on grow and the journey we find ourselves stuck in sometimes. Julia-Paz is a board member on Unfolded: Poetry Project, focusing on the community’s growth in their written and spoken voices.
June Alaniz
June Alaniz is an Emerging Writer who recently graduated from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a Bachelor's in Creative Writing. She has been published in the Poetry Anthology " Had I Known Before" from The Unfolded Poetry Project. She has also been published in the University's Magazine The Gallery as well as The New Farmers Almanac Volume V. June enjoys spending her time collaborating with other artists and strengthening her craft.
Lilia Garza
Lilia Garza is a Chicano, scholar, and, poet whose works include somber tones and lighthearted questioning of identity. She's performed other poems at McAllen TX's CommonSpace, and she is also a character illustrator who dabbles in comics, paintings, and other creative mediums.
Linda Feliciana Romero
Linda Feliciana Romero is from Harlingen, Texas and has been published in Boundless, the anthology for the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, Along the River 2: More Voices from the Rio Grande (VAO Publishing), Twenty: In Memoriam (El Zarape Press), and La Bloga. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018 for her poem, “In the Passenger Seat” by El Zarape Press which appeared in Boundless 2017. She has a private practice as a dyslexia therapist, and is a board member of the International Dyslexia Association - Austin branch.
Luis Omar Garza
Luis Omar Garza is an English teacher, a College Board consultant, a poet, and a father/husband/brother/son (not necessarily in that order). Garza has written poetry for many years and has mainly been influenced by the Romantics, the Victorians, and Shakespeare, preferring formal poetic forms over free verse. Garza often writes about personal experiences and through different personas created for the poetry.
Luis Angel Treviño
I am L.A. Trev. (Luis Angel Treviño) I am typically a epic fantasy writer but I try to learn all forms of literacy.
Michael Gerleman
Michael Gerleman is a retired teacher living in the valley.
Myra Tejada Rasmussen
Myra Tejada Rasmussen is an Adjunct Professor in the Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW). In 1999, Myra received her BA in English from the University of Notre Dame and in 2014 her MFA in Poetry from UNCW. She has been a semi-finalist for the James Applewhite Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Poet’s Billow Pangaea Poetry Prize. “Awana Kancha” and “Arroz Con Leche” are published in Home Planet News Issue 11. Her poem, “Golden Length of Summer” is included in the Boundless 2025 anthology. Her poetry collection, Chakana, will be released later this year.
Nianna E. Gustovich
Nianna E. Gustovich is a language teacher, poet, and artist in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas who composes poetry in English, Spanish, and French. She has participated in RGVIPF since 2013 and has translated Exist or Excel (Vivir o supervivir) into English from Spanish and Sermons (Les Serments) into English from French. She has published various book reviews on Amazon and Goodbooks and is currently working on her own books of poetry and non-fiction. She is an ardent lover of words and believes you should always keep adding verses to your life.
Odilia Galván Rodríguez
Odilia Galván Rodríguez, poet, writer, and activist, is the author of seven volumes of poetry. Her latest book from FlowerSong Press is The Color of Light ~ Poems to the Mexica and Orisha Energies. She is also a co-editor, along with the late Francisco X. Alarcón, of the award-winning anthology Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice, The University of Arizona Press. She is a long-time social justice activist and the editor-in-chief and publisher at Prickly Pear Publishing & Nopalli Press. She serves on the board of directors of Circulo de Poetas and Writers. Additionally, she’s worked as the editor for several magazines, including Tricontinental Magazine in Havana, Cuba, Switchgrass Review, Corpus Christi, and online – Cloud Women’s Quarterly Journal and Anacua Literary Arts Journal.
Paola Carrasco
Paola Carrasco is a pediatrician and a poet originally from Ecuador. She is working on her first poetry collection.
R. Joseph Rodríguez
R. Joseph Rodríguez is the author of This Is Our Summons Now: Poems (FlowerSong Press, 2022), and his most recent book is titled Youth Scribes: Teaching a Love of Writing (Heinemann, 2025). He and his students are readers of borderlands literature as well as banned and challenged books. Contact: @escribescribe or escribescribe@gmail.com.
Ron Ramírez
Ron Ramírez has dedicated over thirty years to Bilingual Education and worked on meeting the needs of diverse students across the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
Rosalva Ruiz
Rosalva Ruiz, nació en 1981 y es originaria de Weslaco, Texas. Empezó a escribir en 2019 como manera de expresarse. Es miembro de Códice Colectivo Literario. Algunas de sus obras se han publicado en antologías de Mcallen Public Library, Gnashing Teeth Publishing y the Raving Press; también en eZines como Prachya Review, Chachalaca Review, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, Aullidos del Monte (Howls from el Monte) y 52television.com.
Ryan Ramirez
Ryan Ramirez is a poet.
Su Yun
Su Yun, whose real name is Chen Ruizhe, he is a 16-year-old poet. He is the member of the Chinese Poetry Society. His works have been published in more than ten countries, including the poetry collections "Spreading All Things" and "Wise Language Philosophy" in China, and the poetry collection "WITH ECSTASY OF MUSING IN TRANQUILITY" in India. He won the 2024 Guido Gozzano Apple Orchard Award in Italy.
Tom Murphy
Tom Murphy is a road poet and the 2021-2022 Corpus Christi Poet Laureate and the Langdon Review’s 2022 Writer-In-Residence. This will be Murphy’s eight participation at V.I.P.F.. Murphy’s books: When I Wear Bob Kaufman’s Eyes (2022), Snake Woman Moon (2021), Pearl (2020), American History (2017), and co-edited Stone Renga (2017). https://tommurphywriter.com
Trevor Wainwright
Known as Trev the Road Poet or The Rhymey Limey, referred to as our adopted International Guest Poet still one of our popular guest poets. Making a welcome return after missing last year due to being double booked. He will again use his rhyme to make a poetic journal of his tour and share at the festival. Proud of his Yorkshire heritage his accent is a hit with listeners of all ages, he enjoys sharing his poetry at schools and encouraging others to write. He will often teach Yorkshire words and their meanings to students.
Victoria Lopez
Victoria Lopez has been a lifelong writer, but in 2015, she began formally introducing herself as one—building confidence through community engagement and public literary initiatives. Her debut novel, Fire in May, was published in 2016, marking the beginning of her professional journey as an author.
Known for her signature Poetry on Demand performances, Victoria transforms spontaneous moments into meaningful verse. With just a word, phrase, question, or feeling, she crafts personalized poems on her typewriter—designed to be kept or gifted to someone you love.
"The most important thing about being a writer is identifying who you are and what you represent. What is your mission? What are you putting into the world? Spend time with yourself and be gentle—the words will come, and when they do, let them be authentic."
Victoria is the 2022 & 2025 City of McAllen Poet Laureate and the founder of Unfolded: Poetry Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to inspiring individuality through the written and spoken word. You can join her at free community workshops hosted at the McAllen Public Library, where she continues to foster creativity, connection, and self-expression across the Rio Grande Valley.
Yelitza Saenz
Yelitza Saenz is a writer from Roma, TX who earned her Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Mexican-American Studies from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Saenz currently resides in McAllen, TX where she has dedicated her academic pursuits to the south Texas region's health and educational well-being. Saenz’s work focuses on Mexican American literacy along with mental health awareness, capturing memories through writing, creative nonfiction, creative writing, and storytelling. Saenz’s poetry has been published in Borderlands 2023, along with a new online publication by OyeDrum Magazine 2024.