Andrés Montoya

Poet Andrés Montoya earned his BA from California State University-Fresno and MFA from the University of Oregon. A co-founder of the Chicano Writers and Artists Association, Montoya published widely in journals such as The Santa Clara Review and Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe, among others. His first book, The Iceworker Sings (1999), received the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California-Irvine and the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award. Montoya’s second book, a posthumous poetry collection, a jury of trees (2017) was edited by his best friend Daniel Chacón. The book was nominated for an International Latino Book Award.

After his untimely death at age 31 from leukemia, the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize was created to honor Montoya and his work. It includes a cash prize and publication from Notre Dame University Press for a Latino poet’s first book. His artistic legacy is a family one, rooted deeply throughout the Bay Area and Central Valley in California where he lived and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where his father Malaquias and his uncle Jose Montoya were born, two brothers who played an important role in Chicano art movement in the 1960s.