Ana María (Ía) Carbonell was born in Uruguay, raised near Boston, and has spent most of her adult life in the Bay Area, where she writes and teaches. Her work has appeared in Catamaran Literary Reader, Mom Egg Review, Saranac Review, Rust & Moth, the MacGuffin, Acentos Review, and elsewhere. Her writing has been supported by a Ragdale residency and a Center for Cultural Innovation Grant; it’s been recognized as a finalist for the Tucson Festival of Books’ Literary Contest and the Shirley Holden Helberg Grant, as well as longlisted for the Masters Review Emerging Writers Contest.

As Professor of English at Diablo Valley College, Ana María teaches creative writing and literature. She is grateful to her colleagues and college for their ongoing support of her writing.

Before teaching, Ana María worked in the social services in San Francisco with youth and their families and with adults with mental illnesses. Before that, she found work wherever she could: in restaurants, offices, stores, and warehouses. She earned her PhD in multiethnic U.S. literatures from UC Santa Cruz and her BA in Psychology from Tufts University.

Ana María currently lives in Berkeley with her musician husband, Manoog Hadeshian, and her ever-wily rescue pup, Luna. Thankfully, her two sons, Mikael and Mateo, and her daughter-in-law, Adriana, live nearby.