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Biography

Celeste Guzmán Mendoza, born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, writes poetry, plays, and essays. Her first full-length poetry manuscript, Beneath the Halo, was published by Wings Press in September 2013.

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Guzmán Mendoza is a co-founder of CantoMundo, a workshop for Latina/o poets. She co-directed CantoMundo for more than ten years with fellow co-director, Deborah Paredez, and other co-founders, Norma E. Cantu, Pablo Miguel Martinez, and Carmen Tafolla. She has participated in the Macondo Writers Workshop and is a past resident of Hedgebrook, a retreat for women writers.

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Her poetry and essays have been published in the following anthologies: Ghost-fishing: an eco-justice poetry anthology (The University of Georgia Press: 2018); Literary San Antonio (TCU Press: 2018); Entre Guadalupe and Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art (University of Texas Press: 2016); Her Texas: Story, Image, Poem and Song (Wings Press: 2016); Goodbye Mexico: Poems of Rememberance (Texas Review Press: 2015); Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education (University of Nebraska Press: 2014); Telling Tongues: A Latin@ Anthology on Language Experience (Calaca Press/Red Salmon Press:2007); Red Boots and Attitude: The Spirit of Texas Women Writers (Eakin Press: 2002); ¡Floricanto Sí!: U.S. Latina Poetry (Penguin:1998), This Promiscous Light (Wings Press: 1996). Her work has also appeared in literary journals and magazines, such as Poet Lore; Borderlands, Salamander, 5 am, Rio Grande Valley Woman, and San Antonio Current. She has work forthcoming in Somos Tejanas by the University of Texas Press.

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Guzmán Mendoza received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College, Columbia University, in Theatre and English Literature. She graduated from the Bennington Writers Seminars with a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry; she worked with poets Amy Gerstler, E. Ethelbert Miller, Timothy Liu, and Liam Rector. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin in 2019. Her dissertation focused on  Latinx philanthropy in higher education.

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Guzmán Mendoza has nearly 30 years of experience in nonprofit management and fundraising. She has helped organizations explore, design, implement, and evaluate administrative and fundraising operations.

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In addition to writing and nonprofit management, Guzmán Mendoza has been working with the Akashic Records and the Motherpeace Tarot for the past three years, which has helped transform her life. Through her business, Channel Your Path Consulting, she offers Akashic Record and Motherpeace Tarot readings to individuals and organizations to help them channel their goals and forge a path forward.

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Guzmán Mendoza is married to Michael Mares Mendoza; they live in Austin and San Antonio with their two cats.

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