Angie Cruz is one of the founders, along with Leslie Shipman and Emily Raboteau, of the National Book Foundation’s after-school program, BookUp, She holds a BA in English and MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. She is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, and the author of two novels, Soledad (Simon & Schuster 2001), which she has adapted into a screenplay, and Let It Rain Coffee (S & S 2005), which was also a finalist in 2007 for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has published short fiction and essays in magazines and journals, including Callaloo, a journal of African Diaspora, The New York Times, Kweli, Phatitude, and South Central Review. She has been teaching creative writing for over 15 years in academic and nontraditional settings such as Texas A&M University, NYU, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and to middle schoolers for the National Book Foundation’s Bookup in Texas where she also serves on the advisory board. She has received numerous grants for her teaching and writing, including the Barbara Deming Award, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, Camargo Fellowship, Van Lier Literary Fellowship, and NALAC Fund for the Arts Fellowship. She has also been awarded residencies: Yaddo, The Macdowell Colony, Fundacion Valparaiso, La Napoule Foundation and The Millay Colony. She is the editor of Aster(ix), a literary/arts journal. Currently she is finishing her third novel, In Search of Caridad.