José B. González is the author of When Love Was Reels and the International Latino Book Award Finalist, Toys Made of Rock. He was born in San Salvador, El Salvador and immigrated to New London, Connecticut at the age of eight. He knew no English and now holds a Ph.D. in English. He has been a featured poet at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, the Split This Rock Busboys and Poets series in DC, Gemini Ink in San Antonio, the Bowery in New York, and literary festivals in such places as El Salvador, Mexico, and Spain. A nationally known speaker, he has presented at various colleges such as Harvard, Rutgers, Fairfield University, Pittsburgh State University, the University of Florida, and Cornell University. He has been a contributor to National Public Radio and has published poetry in such journals as Quercus Review, Callaloo, and Acentos Review. His poetry has been anthologized in the Norton Introduction to Literature, Theatre Under My Skin: Contemporary Salvadoran Poetry, Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, and Latino Boom: An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature, which he also co-edited. A Fulbright Scholar, he is the editor and founder of LatinoStories.Com. He teaches at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and lives in Quaker Hill, CT.