Loria MendozaLoria Mendoza (she/they) is a queer Chicanx writer, curator, community art producer, and multidisciplinary artist rooted in Austin, Texas. Drawn to Swarthmore College's commitment to social justice and critical inquiry, Loria graduated with an HonorsMajor in English Literature and an Honors Minor in Political Science. Their passion for storytelling, equity, and the arts then carried them across the country to San Francisco, where they earned both an MA and MFA in English and Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. There, they discovered a love for community building while serving as a co-curator of the graduate program's Poetry Center reading series, The Velvet Revolution, and as Fiction Editor for 14 Hills magazine.Their book Life's Too Short (Fourteen Hills Press) received the Michael Rubin Book Award. Their work has also been published in the great weather for MEDIA anthologies, Beacon Radiant, and Paper Teller Diorama, The Vassar Review, Fourteen Hills, ellipsis... literature and art, Orca, A Literary Journal, Moon City Review, Anatolios Magazine, Love Is the Drug & Other Dark Poems: A Poetry Anthology by Red Light Lit, Acentos Review, Subprimal, Transfer Magazine, and more. Their writing has been performed on stages across the United States.Loria currently lives in Austin with their partner, newborn daughter, two cats named Hall and Oates and a dog named Betty White. They are the curator and host of Red Light Lit Austin and a firm believer in the healing power of art, community, storytelling, and love. Read More Read Less