Nonprofit Publishing Since 1982
2026 Board of Directors
Working Board
Ladi Youssefi - Chair
Lupe Gallegos-Diaz - Vice Chair
Yael Valencia Aldana
Dr. Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz
Emily Bruce
Advisory Board
Jewelle Gomez
Author and Playwright
Former Director of NYC Arts Commission
LeAnne Howe
Eidson Distinguished Professor in American Literature English
Director of the Institute of Native American Studies
Madeleine Lim
Award-winning filmmaker
Executive/Artistic Director for Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP)
Lupe Gallegos-Diaz is the Director of the Chicanx Latinx Student Development and Co-Director of the Latinx and the Environment campus initiative at the University of California, Berkeley. She also teaches as a Lecturer in the Chicano Studies Program/Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Her teaching areas include - Chicanx Latinx culture and identities; student and leadership development; community engagement and culturally relevant fundraising. Throughout her academic pursuits, she has been committed to advising and advocating for issues that address educational and economic social justice needs for Chicanx Latinx students and communities of color. Read more about her here.
Lupe gallegos-diaz
Yael Valencia Aldana is a Black-Latine poet and writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Black Mestiza and the chapbook Alien(s). She is a Pushcart Prize winner, and her work has appeared in numerous national and international publications. She is the Editor in Chief at Purple Ink Press. She teaches creative writing in Southern California, where she lives between the ocean and the mountains. You can find her online at YaelAldana.com and @yaelwrites.
Yael valencia aldana
dr. rita e. urquijo-ruiz
Dr. Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz is a Mexicana/Chicana fronteriza queer educator, award-winning translator, writer, activist, and performer from Sonora, Mexico and southern California. She is a professor at Trinity University who teaches Mexican, Chicana/o/e/x, and Latina/o/e/x literatures, cultures, gender, sexuality, theater, and performance studies. She authored Wild Tongues: Transnational Mexican Popular Culture and has edited five books related to her fields of study. Her story “First Visit,” about being undocumented as an undergraduate student, is in the anthology: Somewhere We are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, co-edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca. Along with her dear friend and colega Dr. L Heidenreich, she co-authored the book Writing that Matters: A Handbook for Chicanx/Latinx Studies.
Jewelle Gomez
Jewelle Gomez is an American author, poet, critic and playwright.
She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.
LeAnne Howe is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation and writes fiction, poetry, screenplays, creative nonfiction, plays, and scholarship that primarily deal with American Indian experiences. In 2012, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, and received the 2012 USA Ford Fellowship in the Literature category. Her first novel, Shell Shaker (Aunt Lute Books, 2001), received an American Book Award in 2002 from the Before Columbus Foundation. Howe’s second novel, Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story (Aunt Lute Books, 2007), was the Hampton University’s Read-In-Selection for 2009-2010. To read more about Howe’s many accomplishments and accolades in university classrooms, theater stages, and—of course—on the written page, visit LeAnne Howe’s website.
LeAnne Howe
Madeleine Lim
Madeleine Lim is an award-winning filmmaker with over 25 years of experience as a producer, director, cinematographer and editor. She is the Executive/Artistic Director for Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) which she founded in 2000 with the belief that a community of artist-activist filmmakers could change the face of filmmaking and the social justice movement. For 17 years, she was an Adjunct Professor in the Film/Media Studies Department at the University of San Francisco. Read her full bio at https://qwocmap.org/team/.
