Teaching Assistant Professor
2010, BA in English and Hispanic Studies, Columbia University in the City of New York
2019, MFA in Fiction, University of Pittsburgh
Bio
Angela Velez grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her BA from Columbia University and her MFA in Fiction from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was a K. Leroy Irvis Fellow. Her debut Young Adult novel, Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity was a 2022 Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection.
Angela is a member of Las Musas, a children’s literature marketing collective for Latinx women and marginalized people whose gender identity aligns with femininity. She has received the 2019 Peter Taylor Fellowship from The Kenyon Review and she was a 2019 ProjectArt Artist in Residence. Her work has appeared in The Billfold, Electric Literature, Brit + Co, and Aster(ix) Journal. She lives in Durham, with her piles of books, three plastic flamingos, and one wobbly disco ball.
Publications:
- Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity (Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2022)
- “Literary Adventures With Sandra Cisneros” (Aster(ix) Presents Podcast, 2019)
- “Craigslist Missed Connections From Pittsburgh Come to Life” (Electric Lit – The Commuter, 2018)
Awards
- 2019 ProjectArt Artist-in-Residence
- 2019 Peter Taylor Fellowship
- 2019 Artist-in-Residence, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Physics & Astronomy
- 2019 Distinguished Graduate Student Teaching Award
- 2016 – 2019: Leroy Irvis Foundation, Honoree and Grant Winner
Courses Taught:
- (ENG 130) Introduction to Fiction
- (ENG 210) Writing Young Adult Literature