Board of Directors

José Faus (President) received degrees in Studio Art and Creative Writing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Joe is a muralist with public works locally and in Mexico who has headed up groups of artists working on public art projects. For Joe, art is a way to express an interior dialogue- in other words, he talks to himself a lot and sometimes he listens. He reads anything available, especially in waiting rooms. Joe is a newspaper editor and founding member of the Latino Writers Collective.
Linda Rodriguez (Vice-President) is a member of the Latino Writers Collective, a founding board member of The Writers Place, founder/coordinator of the annual Kansas City Women Writers Reading Series, and has published poetry and fiction in numerous regional and national literary magazines, as well as in several anthologies. Her chapbook, Skin Hunger, was named by Michael Bugeja of Writer’s Digest as one of the four top poetry chapbooks of the year. She has also published numerous articles for general and scholarly publications, including three articles on Rudolfo Anaya’s work in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Hispanic Literature. She is currently working on a novel and a nonfiction book for women.
Maria Vazquez Boyd (Secretary/Treasurer) continues exhibiting, painting and illustrating across the country. Some of her works includes murals in Mexico. A graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, Boyd later returned to teach in the Design/Illustration Department. She taught at the Nelson Atkins Museum, worked for Hallmark Cards, and currently is the gallery coordinator for the Guadalupe Center and for The Writers Place. Boyd continues to write poetry and is a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective.
Gabriela N. Lemmons (Historian) was born and raised in South Texas, a stone’s throw from El Rio Grande. “As an only child of migrant workers, I was raised in a household where Spanish was the spoken language. My father was a remarkable storyteller and after his passing, I was inspired to write down his recollections. I enjoy writing bilingual poetry and memoir. I am inspired to write so that my only child, Javier, will one day read about the abuelitos he never met. But most importantly, I write so that I may never forget where I came from.” Gabriela studied writing with Sandra Cisneros.
Gloria Martinez Adams is a southwestern Chicana, transplanted in the Midwest for many years. “I belong to part of the rebellious generation that broke loose of the segregation imposed on Hispanos in the 50's, 60's & 70's. If 'I Left My Heart in New Mexico' was a song, it would be my song. Although most of my growing-up years were spent in a dusty mining town in Arizona, I was born in an adobe dwelling in New Mexico and spent summers visiting relatives there. That is where my storytelling comes in—life was good simply sitting around a wood burning stove, pine & piñon permeating the air, listening to stories passed down from generations of Spanish settlers. Those tales never grow old for me.”

General Members

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar was born in the Dominican Republic but has lived most of his life in the United States. He is about to graduate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City with degrees in Spanish and English literature. He hopes to pursue an MFA in creative writing and then a Ph.D. in English.
Xanath Caraza Xánath is a traveler, educator, poet, and short story writer. She has a Certificate for Overseas Teachers of English from the University of Cambridge, UK. Having attended graduate school at the School for International Training, she spent three years in Vermont. She also received an MA in Romance Languages from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Furthermore, she has published her original work and essays in El Cid, La revista estudiantil del Capítulo Tau Iota de Sigma Delta Pi, La Sociedad Nacional Honoraria Hispánica, and Utah Foreign Language Review, University of Utah. Present Magazine an online publication. The anthology Más allá de las fronteras, Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, published an award-winning short story of her work in 2004. The anthology, Cuentos del Centro: Stories from the Latino Heartland, 2009 published four of her short stories. Her poetry is part of the anthology: Primera Página: Poetry from the Latino Heartland, 2008. She was a finalist in the short story contest John Barry Award 2008. She has published in Mexico in newspapers a number of times. She also presented at the 4th Annual Tierra Tinta Conference on Latin American, Spanish, and Luso-Brazilian Literatures in Oklahoma, at the X Congreso de Literatura Mexicana Contemporánea in El Paso, Texas, and the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of.

Angela Cervantes is the author of a short story published in Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul. Her poetry is included on the upcoming spoken word/poetry CD compilation produced by Calaca Press. Angela's poetry has been featured in the Kansas City Star and Urban Latino magazine and she has been a featured poet for the Riverfront Reading Series and the Kansas City Women Writers Reading Series. When Angela is not writing, she is taking a nap or stuffing her face with cheese enchiladas. Angela currently sits on the board of directors for Kansas City's The Writers Place.
Jennifer Prado is a graduate student, wife, and brand-new mother. “I’m a small-town girl who became closer to her ‘Brownness’ during college years. La cultura has always tugged at my heart and moved my soul. Above all I hope to bring a genuine and sometimes simple perspective. If I inspire a few people along the way, or remind them of their own familia, it makes my work even more fulfilling.
Gloria Vando’s most recent book of poems, Shadows and Supposes, won the 2003 Best Poetry Book of the Year Award from the Latino Literary Hall of Fame and the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has won numerous other awards and fellowships. She reads her poem, “Fire,” on the 2007 Grammy-nominated CD collection, Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006 (which features Tennyson, Browning, and Walt Whitman, who were recorded by Edison when he invented the phonograph). A Puerto Rican born in New York City, Vando’s poems have been adapted for the stage and presented at Lincoln Center and Off-Broadway. She is publisher and editor of Helicon Nine Editions, a small press she founded 30 years ago and for which she received the Kansas Governors Arts Award. In 1992, she and her husband, Bill Hickok, founded The Writers Place, a literary center in Kansas City, where they lived. They now live in L.A.
Chato Villalobos was born in Los Angeles, California, but has lived in Kansas City, Missouri, most of his life. Chato is a new member of the Latino Writers Collective and has been involved in the performing arts for over 15 years, including acting with the Coterie Theater and as a folkloric dancer with El Grupo Atotonilco. A Kansas City, Missouri, police officer, Chato's current loves are writing poetry and youth advocacy.