Dr. Jesú Estrada,
Chicago, IL

I grew up on the outskirts of Yuma, AZ, close to the Cocopah reservation. Because I was ever-bored, I became an avid reader of Spanish comic books and anything in English. Then I moved onto Steinbeck and Stephen King and now read international authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Atwood, and Marouf. I also read a lot of coming of age fiction.

I have been writing stories in both Spanish and English since I was six years old. My fiction and poetry focus on working class issues, primarily about laborers in the Southwest. I also write non-serious fiction, like zombie fiction (I was into it before it got popular with the Walking Dead series, which I love) and dabble in magical realism with a fusion of cuentos and folklore.

I have a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University, a Masters Degree in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Arts from Northern Arizona University. I have also taught creative writing, and will do so, spring 2017. Currently, I live in Chicago and teach full-time at Harold Washington College to an amazing student population.

More about me. I am happily married, been so for over eight years, and have a fabulous seven-year-old who makes my life phenomenal: He too is starting to write short stories. I recently had a second baby, Simona, which put a temporary set-back on the publication of my first book, but made my life infinitely more wonderful. My husband is also incredibly supportive, and I have enlisted him to market whatever I do that is worth marketing.

That damned itch just won't let me be, so I'm back to my original love of words.

I am currently working on The Harvest, a dystopian novel, and having my first short story collection, Down South where the Water is Warm, edited for publication. 

I am self-publishing my first collection because I weighed the pros and cons of print media versus digital, and I decided to go digital.  Also, because it was so time consuming to translate my own Spanish and Spanglish, I decided that in the age of electronics, people can free translate all the language they don't know or look up the slang or, mierda, email me. 

For now, enjoy the daily blog posts on my writing journey and connections with other authors:  (Un Blog de) Writing Musings.

The growing draft of The Harvest gets posted about once a week or more.  Constructive criticism is welcome:  The Harvest Novel Draft.

You can also peruse some of my published samples.  More sample stories will be posted here in the Current Work section, as soon as I copyright my work because I am that paranoid.  Seriously, I need to copyright the work first before I post it on online forums.

I will also post poems in the Poetry section. 

This semester, and the following if the schedule allows, I will be teaching Creative Writing, and I can't teach the class if I do not practice what I preach.  You can read about my teaching successes and struggles and teaching ideas on:    http://border-edwriting.blogspot.com. 

Want to book me for a reading in the Chicago or mid-west area?  Contact Aaron Breed:  home60601@gmail.com.

If you have feedback, let me know in person, or if you are not a C.C.C. student or community member, e-mail me at drmariajestrada@gmail.com.