Rod Carlos Rodriguez has an MFA degree in Creative Writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and is a Lecturer at the University of Texas at San Antonio Writing Program. He is a poet, fiction, and non-fiction writer who has been writing for over 40 years. He has published three books of poetry: the award-winning "Exploits of a Sun Poet" (Pecan Grove Press, 2003), "Lucid Affairs" (Sun Arts Press, 2012), and "Native Instincts" (Human Error Publishing, 2016). His fourth book of poetry, "Cantos, Incandescent", has been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press. He is founder/chair of the Sun Poet’s Society, South Texas’s longest running weekly open-mic poetry reading (1995-2022). He has been nominated for the San Antonio Poet Laureate in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018. He was poetry editor for "Ocotillo Review", a literary journal/periodical and he was the editor of the "Texas Poetry Calendar 2023" (Kallisto Gaia Press).