TWO-TIME EMMY AWARD WINNING Marcos McPeek Villatoro is the author of six novels, two collections of poetry and a memoir. His Romilia Chacón crime fiction books have won national acclaim (named a Best Book of 2001 by the Los Angeles Times) and are published in Germany, Japan, Russia and Brazil.

Marcos holds the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair in Writing at Mount St. Mary's College. He has performed on NPR and appears regularly on KCET Television in Los Angeles.

Recently he and his family returned from his other country of El Salvador, where they shot the documentary TAMALE ROAD, now in post-production.

Marcos teaches and lectures on poetry, fiction, nonfiction, the Latino and Appalachian worlds, and tamales. His books are taught in colleges and high schools across the country.

Marcos, his wife Michelle and their four kids live in Los Angeles.