Daniel Pena
Daniel Peña is a writer, reviewer, journalist, and blogger. His debut novel, BANG, chronicles the fate of two brothers living on the border between Mexico and the USA, "[v]ividly portraying the impact of international drug smuggling on the average person" and "prob[ing] the loss of talented individuals and the black market machines fed with the people removed and shut out of America." It will be published by Arte Público Press in the fall of 2017. Peña has also written numerous short stories and essays for venues like Ploughshares, Callaloo, and The Guardian, winning the Pushcart Prize in 2017 for his short story "Safe Home."
Peña holds both Mexican and US citizenship, speaks English and Spanish fluently, and has lived in Mexico City for a while before settling in Texas, where he teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Houston-Downtown. Previously, he worked at Louisiana State University and at Cornell University, from where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 2013. He has received grants and awards from Cornell University as well as a Fulbright Scholarship to Mexico City, and he has held fellowships and residencies at both Cornell and Texas A&M University.
You can find out more about Daniel Peña and his works on his homepage.
Picador Guest Professor for Literature
Room 3 5.14 | Phone: 0341/9737333
http://americanstudies.uni-leipzig.de/faculty/pena
daniel.pena@uni-leipzig.de