The Latinx in Publishing Writers Mentorship Program is a volunteer-based initiative that offers the opportunity for unpublished and/or unagented writers who identify as Latinx (mentees) to strengthen their craft, gain first-hand industry knowledge, and expand their professional connections through work with experienced published authors (mentors).
Be sure to check out Latinx in Pub’s Bookshop for a list of our mentor’s publications! And read below to learn more about our wonderful mentors!
Alana Viramontes Albertson is a Latina bestselling romance author (her book Badass hit #3 in entire Amazon paid store, she has had multiple novels in the top 100 paid store, and her Se7en Deadly SEALs romantic thriller serial has over one million views on the Radish fiction app). She has over thirty books published and recently signed a three-book, six-figure deal with Berkley Publishing for the upcoming Latinx romantic comedy series, Spicy Rich Tacos. Alana Albertson holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. She’s a paid social media influencer and the former President of Romance Writers of America’s Contemporary Romance, Young Adult, and Chick Lit chapters. She’s the founder of the non-profit dog rescue, Pugs N Roses.™ She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two young sons, and six dogs.
Juan Alvarado Valdivia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico to Peruvian parents and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of ¡Cancerlandia!: A Memoir and Ballad of a Slopsucker, which was a 2020 International Latino Book Award finalist for Best Collection of Short Stories – English or Bilingual and was chosen as Best Short Story Collection for the 2019 Latinidad List. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Prairie Schooner, The Acentos Review, Black Heart Magazine, The Cortland Review, Label Me Latina/o, Mount Hope, Origins Journal, Somos en escrito, and Thread.
Katrina Carrasco is queer and Latinx, with roots in Southern California and home in Seattle, WA. Katrina received her MFA in Fiction in 2015, and has had stories and essays published by Witness, Literary Hub, CrimeReads, and other outlets. Her debut novel, The Best Bad Things (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux), won a 2018 Shamus Award and was a Lambda Literary Award and Washington State Book Award finalist. She is working on a new novel.
Pablo Cartaya is the author of the critically acclaimed middle-grade novels: The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish, and Each Tiny Spark. His novels center around the themes of family, culture, community, and the cross-section of the Latinx experience in the United States. Pablo has worked as an actor, notably co starring on NBC’s “Will & Grace” and Telemundo’s “Los Beltran”. Pre-pandemic he was giving performative talks around the country on writing, reading, and identity. Now he’s home working on his next novels and speaking to students, educators, and readers around the world in a virtual format. He calls Miami home and Cuban-American his cultura. Awards and Honors include: 2020 Schneider Family Book Award Honor, 2019 ALSC Notable Book, 2018 American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Honor, 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Middle Grade Audiobook of the Year (for narration and title).
Joe Cepeda received his BFA in Illustration from California State University, Long Beach. He is the illustrator of award-winning picture books such as What a Truly Cool World (Scholastic), Nappy Hair (Knopf), Mice and Beans (Scholastic), and The Swing (Arthur A. Levine Books), which he wrote as well as illustrated. Mr. Cepeda has illustrated books written by numerous notable authors including Gary Soto, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Arnold Adoff, Monica Brown, Julius Lester and Toni Morrison. He’s also illustrated book jackets for several titles, including Esperanza Rising and the Newbery Medal winner Merci Suarez Changes Gears. Mr. Cepeda received a 2002 ALA Pura Belpré Honor and the Recognition of Merit Award for 2000 from the George G. Stone Center for Children’s Books. Joe was awarded a Capstone Fellowship for 2016. In addition to his illustrative work, Mr. Cepeda is sought after as a public speaker to schools and other groups. He is the president of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. He lives in Southern California.
Rosalie Morales Kearns, a writer of Puerto Rican and Pennsylvania Dutch descent, is the founder of Shade Mountain Press. Her novel Kingdom of Women (Jaded Ibis, 2017), about a female Roman Catholic priest in a slightly alternate near-future, was described in Kirkus Reviews as a “daring critique of today’s patriarchy [that] never feels didactic or forced” and praised by U.S. Catholic as a “deeply felt and richly imagined rendering of what the upending of patriarchy might look like.” Her fabulist/speculative story collection Virgins and Tricksters (Aqueous, 2012) was described by Marge Piercy as “succinct, smart tales rooted in a female-centered spirituality.” Kearns has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Illinois and has taught creative writing at the University of Illinois, the University at Albany, and adult education venues.
Diana López is the author of the adult novella, Sofia's Saints, and numerous middle grade novels, including CONFETTI GIRL, NOTHING UP MY SLEEVE, and LUCKY LUNA. Her picture book biography, SING WITH ME: THE STORY OF SELENA QUINTANILLA, will be released in April to celebrate what would have been Selena's 50th birthday. Diana recently retired from the University of Houston-Victoria. Her "second act" day job is helping her husband in his physical therapy clinic, FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Center, located in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Jose Nateras is an L.A. based Actor & Writer from Chicago. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago, he also has his MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). A screenwriter and playwright, Jose is also a contributor for The Gamer, The A.V. Club, and elsewhere. His debut novel, Testament, was released by Ninestar Press and his original feature-length horror screenplay, Departing Seniors, is currently in pre-production. Follow him on Twitter: @JoseNateras & Instagram: @JLorca13
Luis Alejandro Ordóñez (1973) is a Venezuelan writer born in Boston, MA. He obtained a Political Science degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela, and he was a professor of Political Communication at the Journalism School of the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. He moved to the United States in 2008. He has worked as editor, copywriter, proofreader, translator, Spanish teacher, and bookseller between Chicago and Miami. In 2018 he published El último New York Times (Suburbano Ediciones), and in 2020 its translation into English, The Last New York Times (Katakana Editores, translated by José Ángel Navejas.) He also has published a short stories collection titled Play (Ars Communis, 2015). He has been part of anthologies of writers who live in the United States and write in Spanish, such as Diáspora (Vaso Roto), Pertenencia and Trasfondos (both of Ars Communis), and Escritorxs Salvajes (Hypermedia). In 2014 he won the II Literary Prize in Spanish from Northeastern Illinois University for the story “Doble Negación.” With “Librero,” he won the Severo Ochoa Micro-Story Contest of the Cervantes Institute library in Chicago.
Iván Pérez-Zayas is a poet, scholar, and a trainee acquisitions editor working in the university press field. His first poetry chapbook, Para restarse, was published the summer of 2019. He is now writing a doctoral dissertation about representations of identity in Latin American graphic novels while working as the Mellon Diversity Fellow at Northwestern University Press. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, he is now based out of Chicago, Illinois.
Francisco X. Stork emigrated from Mexico at the age of nine with his mother and his adoptive father. He is the author of nine novels including: Marcelo in the Real World, recipient of the Schneider Family Book Award, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, which received the Elizabeth Walden Award, The Memory of Light, recipient of the Tomás Rivera Award and Disappeared, which received the Young Adult Award from the Texas Institute of Letters and was a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor Book. On the Hook will be published in May of 2021.
