Carlos Martinez is sixty-seven years old, and was born and raised in the Spanish Harlem neighborhood of New York City, where he attended his local parish elementary school, and graduated from Haaren High School. He attended Trinity College in Hartford CT, from which he graduated with a BA in Philosophy. He began writing poetry at the age of sixteen, encouraged and helped by his high school English Honors teacher. He had a long and varied career in both the private non-profit sector and government, finally leaving government to obtain his MFA in Creative Writing at the age of forty-eight. Since the acquisition of his graduate degree, he has taught composition, various literature and creative writing courses at a variety of schools: Highline and Green River Community Colleges, Western Washington University and, most recently, at Northwest Indian College. He has published extensively in a variety of local and national literary journals and anthologies, and has had three chapbooks published by Finishing Line Press. This is his first full-length collection. In addition, he has read at many venues in the Seattle and Bellingham areas, has twice been a reader at the Skagit River Poetry Festival, has been a featured reader at Gonzaga and Willamette Universities and at Trinity College, his alma mater. He has also read at the Grolier and Open Books Bookstores, two of three poetry-only bookstores in the country.
