Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés

Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés was born in New Jersey to Cuban parents. Educated in Miami and New York, her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including South Writ Large, Acentos Review, Azahares, The Antonym, Kweli Journal, Guernica, Letras Femeninas, Southern Humanities Review, and The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Her short story collections, Oye What I’m Gonna Tell You from Ig Publishers which released Marielitos, Balseros, and Other Exiles in 2009, were #4 and #5 on the Guardian’s list of 10 of the best books to help understand Cuba. Everyday Chica, winner of the 2010 Longleaf Press Poetry Prize was followed by Everyday Chica, Music and More, a poetry CD set to Caribbean folk music was released in 2011. She is Professor of English at the University of Central Florida where she teaches literature, writing and digital storytelling.