Rain Gomez won the 2009 First Book Award in poetry for Smoked Mullet Cornbread Crawdad Memory (Mongrel Empire Press, Fall 2012). A self described “TriRacially Fluffy and Fabulous” Louisiana Méstiza,poet, academic and musician.Her critical work, “Brackish Bayou Blood: Weaving Mixed Blood Indian Creole Identity Outside the Written Record,” appears in American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

This project is co-sponsored by the American Indian Resource Center, Care Council, The Departments of American Studies, Literature, and the UC Presidential Chair in Feminist Critical Race and Ethnic Studies.