Naomi Quinonez

College Lecturer, CSU East Bay Ethnic Studies Department

Naomi Quiñonez is a poet, educator and cultural activist. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Hummingbird Dream/Sueño de Colibri, The Smoking Mirror and The Exiled Moon. She edited several critical and literary publications including Invocation L.A: Urban Multicultural Poetry, which won the American Book Award, Decolonial Voices and Caminos Magazine. She is co founder of the Bay Area Librotraficante network, a founding member of the Los Angeles Barrio Writer’s Workshop and she offers poetry and literacy workshops to diverse communities in the Bay Area including the Women’s Cancer Resource Center in Oakland, and the Instituto Familiar de la Raza in the Mission District. In addition to holding a PhD in American History and contributing to the scholarship of Latino/as and women of color, Quiñonez is part of a larger genre of U.S. writers of color and has appeared in programs with Quincy Troupe, Octavia Butler and Luis Rodriguez. Her work has appeared in many publications including the Colorado Review, Infinite Divisions and, From Totems to Hip Hop. Quiñonez is the recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, the American Book Award, and a California Arts Grant, She is featured in Notable Hispanic Women and the Dictionary of Literary Biography.