Rigoberto González was born in Bakersfield, California and raised in Michoacán, Mexico, the son and grandson of migrant farm workers. He is the author of 15 books of poetry and prose.His first poetry collection, So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water Until it Breaks (University of Illinois Press, 1999) was chosen by Ai for the National Poetry Series. His poetry collection Other Fugitives and Other Strangers (Tupelo Press, 2006) won the Poetry Center Book Award. His most-recent poetry collection, Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013), won the Lambda Literary Award and the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. His memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006) won the American Book Award.He is the recipient of Guggenheim, NEA and USA Rolón fellowships; a NYFA grant in poetry; the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America; the Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award; and the 2015 Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle. A contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine and a member of the executive board of directors of the National Book Critics Circle, and is a professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.