Alex Espinoza

Alex Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in suburban Los Angeles.

In high school and afterwards, he worked a series of retail jobs, selling everything from eggs and milk to used appliances, furniture, rock T-shirts, and body jewelry.   The youngest of eleven children, Alex was the first in his family to attend college. After two years at San Bernardino Valley College, he received his BA in Creative Writing from the UC-Riverside and went on to earn an MFA from UC-Irvine.

Alex's first novel, Still Water Saints , was heralded by Los Angeles Magazine as "a stunning debut." Sandra Cisneros called the book "as perfect as the beads of a rosary...capable of renewing one's faith in new fiction." The novel was released simultaneously in a Spanish translation as Los santos de Agua Mansa, California .   Alex's non-fiction has appeared as part of Gary Soto's Chicano Chapbook Series and in the New York Times Magazine , and his stories have been included in several anthologies.

Alex is involved in the Puente Project, a program designed to help first-generation community college students make a successful transition to university. A Puente student himself, he now serves as a mentor and enjoys visiting Puente classes to talk with students about his own journey and the opportunities he gained through education.   He has also participated in and taught at the Macondo Workshop in San Antonio. He is now an assistant professor of English at CSU-Fresno and is at work on his next novel.