Gwendolyn Zepeda's Biography

Gwendolyn Zepeda was born in Houston, Texas in 1971 and attended the University of Texas at Austin. She began her writing career on the web by creating an award-winning Web site, gwenworld.com, in 1997, and as one of the founding staff members of the notorious entertainment site, Television Without Pity. It wasn’t until 2000 that she began reading her work aloud to audiences face-to-face, at readings hosted by Houston arts organizations Nuestra Palabra and MECA.

In 2004, Arte Público Press published Zepeda’s first book, a short-story collection called To the Last Man I Slept with and All the Jerks Just Like Him. It was hailed by EFE as “an energetic and different voice with the potential to transform Latino literature and rid it of all its bad habits and clichés.”

In May 2008, Arte Público Press will publish her first children’s book, Growing Up with Tamales. In January 2009, Grand Central Publishing will publish her first novel, Houston, We Have a Problema.

Zepeda has been profiled and quoted in newspapers and magazines ranging from the Austin Chronicle to the New York Post to the Dublin Times. In 2004, she won the Houston Arts Alliance’s Individual Artist Grant for her literary pursuits. She regularly lectures at universities throughout Texas. Currently, she lives in Houston with her three sons and a cat named Starbuck.