Daniel García Ordaz

Poet

Author's Bio

TEDx Speaker Daniel García Ordaz, a.k.a. The Poet Mariachi, is a teacher at La Joya Early College High School and serves as the 2023 McAllen Poet Laureate. His work has been taught and written about by academics across the U.S. and abroad and he is a 2018 Pushcart Prize nominee. García has an MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. He is also a singer/songwriter, former journalist, photographicationisticator, and word-maker-upper. García appears in the documentary, "ALTAR: Cruzando fronteras/Building bridges." He is the founder of the Rio Grande Valley Int'l. Poetry Festival. García served in the U.S. Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. His individual book titles include the #1 bestseller books and ebook You Know What I'm Sayin'? and Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment (and its YA version), as well as the #1 bestseller ebook Pet Names. His new middle grades collection, Read Until You Bleed: Funny and Thoughtful Poems For Funny and Thoughtful Children, is now in print. García's work has appeared in several journals and anthologies.

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
Fly Heroes (FlowerSong Press, 2023)
,
Asina Is How We Talk (FlowerSong Press, 2022)
,
Good Cop/Bad Cop (FlowerSong Press, 2021)
,
I SING: THE BODY (Poems About Body Image) (FlowerSong Press, 2021)
,
Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican In America (Penguin Random House, 2021)
,
Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century (Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, 2020)
,
Poetry of Resistance: Voices For Social Justice (University of Arizona Press, 2016)
,
Twenty: In Memoriam (El Zarape Press , 2014)
,
Juventud! Growing up on the Border: Stories and Poems (VAO Publishing, 2013)
Books:
Read Until You Bleed: Funny and Thoughtful Poetry For Funny and Thoughtful Children (El Zarape Press , 2023)
,
Cenzontle/Mockingbird (YA Edition): Songs of Empowerment (El Zarape Press , 2018)
,
Cenzontle/Mockingbird: Songs of Empowerment: Poetry * Drama (FlowerSong Press, 2018)
,
You Know What I'm Sayin'? (El Zarape Press , 2006)
Journals:
Encore
,
Gallery Magazine
,
Harbinger Asylum
,
Interstice
,
Left Hand of the Father
,
Mesquite Review
,
Praxis Online
Prizes won: 

2023 McAllen Poet Laureate, City of McAllen, Texas

6th Honorable Mention, National Federation of State Poetry Societies Contest, Annual Convention: “She/Her” (2021)

3rd Place, Texas Intercollegiate Press Association Division 1 Spanish Feature Story: "Romeo y Julieta y Que?" (2017)

Winner, Maya Angelou Essay Contest, The University of Texas-Pan American (2011)

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Lloyd Alexander Langston Hughes Maya Angelou Gloria E. Anzaldúa Walter Wangerin, Jr. Pablo Neruda Walt Whitman Robert Frost Zora Neale Hurston Alice Walker Virginia Woolf

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
American, Hispanic, Latino/Latina/Latinx, Mexican
Prefers to work with: 
Adults, At Risk Youth, Children, Naturalists/Environmentalists, Teachers, Teenagers, Veterans
Fluent in: 
English, Spanish
Born in: 
Houston, TX
Texas
Raised in: 
Mission, TX
Texas
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Aug 29, 2023