Ricardo Cortez Cruz Mailing Address: 5 Tyne Court,#1 Bloomington, IL. 61704-1208 County: McLean E-mail: Delacruz94@aol.com Phone: Work: 309-438-3667 Home: 309-663-5087 Genre: Fiction/Creative Non-Ficiton

Periodical Publications:

• "Black Mafia Life" (short story), Crab Orchard Review, 2001
• "Peace to My Nine" (short story), Step Into a World: A Global Anthology of the New Black Literature, edited by Kevin Powell, 2000
• Over forty short stories and book reviews in various periodicals

Book Publications:

• Five Days of Bleeding (novel), FC2/Black Ice Books, 1995
• Straight Outta Compton (novel), FC2, 1992

Forthcoming Publications:

• "Black Marks and Stigmata: My Flesh and Blood," included in the anthology Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men on Life, Law, and Justice, edited by Jabori Asim, St. Martin's Press, 2002

Awards, Fellowships, Grants and Honors:

• Illinois Arts Council Award for the prose piece "Black Mafia Life," 2001
• Illinois Arts Council Award for Prose, 2000
• Illinois State University Outstanding Young Alumni Award, 2000
• Illinois Community College Trustees Association Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1996
• Nilon Award for Excellence in Minority Fiction, 1991

Recent Readings, Performances and Productions:

• The Writing Festival, St. Louis Community College, Meramec, 2000
• Millikin University, Decatur, IL, 2000
• Bloomington Public Library, 2000
• others

Recent Workshops:

• I have conducted discussions and writing classes at Lincoln Correctional Facility (Lincoln, IL), Decatur Women's Correctional Facility (Decatur, IL), and Federal Prison Medium-Security Center (Pekin, IL)

Present Employment:

Preferred Audience:

• Reading material may not be suitable for pre-high school children. Otherwise, all audiences. I am happy to consider tailoring work to make it suitable for younger audiences.

Willing to travel: