Joseph Somoza taught literature and creative writing at NMSU for 22 years, editing poetry for Puerto Del Sol during most of that time. He has published four previous chapbooks and three full books of poetry, the most recent being Cityzen (La Alameda, 2002). He’s done readings of his poems in many venues throughout the country, including The Green Mill (Chicago), Cody’s (Berkeley), The Cornelia Street Cafe (New York), The Elliston Poetry Library (University of Cincinnati), the Mesa (AZ) Literary Festival, and The Living Batch Bookstore (Albuquerque). He lives in Las Cruces with wife Jill, a painter.

Jill Somoza has been painting, drawing, papermaking, and doing collage paintings for 40 years. She has experimented with various materials and is currently painting on vinyl, superimposing large, oddly-shaped, translucent panels. The works shown here are small single-plane pieces of acrylic and photo-transfers on vinyl. She studied art at the University of Iowa, UTEP, and NMSU, and has shown her work at varaious galleries, including The Bridge Center for Contemporary Art in El Paso, Branigan Cultural Center and in "Close To The Border" at the NMSU gallery in Las Cruces, Hansford Gallery in New York, and Sanchez Gallery in San Francisco. Most recently, she had work in the Summer Regional Invitational 2003 at NMSU. She lives with poet Joe Somoza, with whom she raised 3 kids who all have happy, independent lives.