Luis J. Rodríguez is an award-winning poet, journalist, and critic. With the publication in 1993 of his highly acclaimed memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., Rodríguez established himself as an accomplished author. Among the awards he has received for Always Running are the Carl Sandburg Literary Award for nonfiction in 1993 and the Chicago Sun-Times Book Award for nonfiction in 1994. In addition, the book was chosen as a Notable Book by The New York Times Book Review in 1993. Rodríguez's distinctive development of imagery and themes in his poetry has also won him accolades. For his first collection, Poems Across the Pavement (1989), he was presented with the Poetry Center Book Award from San Francisco State University. In 1991 he received the P.E.N. West/Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence for The Concrete River, published that year. He has been...