Rodney Gomez

Rodney Gomez was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas. He earned a BA from Yale University, an MA in philosophy from Arizona State University, an MFA from the University of Texas Pan American, and an MPA from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Gomez’s collections include Arsenal with Praise Song (Orison Books, 2020); Geographic Tongue (Pleiades Press, 2020), winner of the Pleiades Press Visual Poetry Series; Ceremony of Sand (YesYes Books, 2019); and Citizens of the Mausoleum (Sundress Publications, 2018). He is the winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize, the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and the Rane Arroyo Chapbook Prize.

Gomez is a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop and edits an annual anthology for youth poets from the lower Rio Grande Valley. He works in mobility demand management as executive director of parking and transportation at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and lives in McAllen, Texas, where he serves as poet laureate.

Read about Rodney Gomez’s 2020 Poets Laureate Fellowship project.