Francisco X. Alarcón (1954–2016) b. Wilmington, CA, and grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico. Returned to Southern California at age seventeen. Earned BA from California State University, Long Beach, and MA from Stanford. Served as director of the Spanish for Native Speakers Program at the University of California, Davis, and taught for the California Poets in the Schools program. Publications include the poetry collections De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love (1991), the American Book Award–winning Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (1992), and From the Other Side of Night/Del otro lado de la noche (2002); among his books for children are the bilingual poetry collection From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems/Del ombligo de la luna: y otros poemas de verano (1998). Winner of a Chicano Literary Prize and the Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award, and other honors.
