Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of Indigenous descent and the Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of numerous poetry books including Another Menudo Sunday (2007), O' Dark Heaven: A Response to Suzette Haden Elgin's Definition of Horror (2009), WUI: Written Under the Influence of Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. (2011), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume I (2014), Sex, Lies, and Chupacabras (2015), Space In Pieces (2020), Screw The Wall! And Other Brown People Poems (2020), Planet Of The Zombie Zonnets: Seasons One And Two (2021), Casual Haiku (2022), Christian Haiku For The Daily You (2022), Terror Of The Zombie Zonnets: Planet Of The Zombie Zonnets Season Three (2022), Live From La Pryor: The Poetry of Juan Manuel Perez: A Zavala Country Native Son, Volume II: The Early Chapbooks (2022), Truth In The Time Of Chupacabras (2022), Thirty Years Ago: Life And The First Gulf War (2023), and the horror poem turned comic book, La Santa Madre Tamalera (2023), as well as, the co-editor of the speculative poetry anthologies, Unleash Your Inner Chupacabra (2012; Archive Edition 2022) and The Call Of The Chupacabra (2018). His new book, “Bury My Heart Under The Martian Sky,” is forthcoming from Interstellar Flight Press.
“Space in Pieces,” “Planet Of The Zombie Zonnets: Seasons One And Two,” and “Terror Of The Zombie Zonnets: Planet Of The Zombie Zonnets Season Three” are all Elgin Award Nominated Books through the Science Fiction And Fantasy Poetry Association.
Juan is also the 2021 Horror Authors Guild’s Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award winner and a recipient of a 2021 Horror Writers Association Diversity Grant.
He is the 2011-2012 San Antonio Poets Association Poet Laureate and the Lone Star State's only El Chupacabras Poet Laureate (For Life), as well as a Zombie Texas Poet Of The Year.
The former Gourd Dancer for the Memphis Tia Piah Big River Clan Warrior Society is also a multiple Pushcart Prize Nominee as well as a SEATTAH Scholar (Striving For Excellence And Accountability In The Teaching Of Traditional American History) through the University Of Dallas. Juan currently travels around Texas to Gourd Dance at Pow Wows with a group from the Coastal Bend without affiliation to any one Indigenous group.
Juan is a ten-year Navy Corpsman/Combat Marine Medic (1987-1997) with experience in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and Desert Calm) attached to the 2nd Marines out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and was also a part of the 1992 Hurricane Andrew Relief Marine Air Group Task Force that went down to provide medical & linguistic support to a devastated Homestead, Florida.
This two-time Teacher of the Year, along with his wife, Malia (a three-time Teacher of the Year and now Librarian), is a co-founder of The House of the Fighting Chupacabras Press. Juan was also recently honored as one of the top ten 2023 Corpus Christi Hooks All-Star Educators in partnership with Reliant Energy honoring exceptional teachers in the Coastal Bend.
The former migrant field worker previously from La Pryor, Texas currently worships his Creator, writes as well as conducts poetry and history workshops, and chases chupacabras in the Texas Coastal Bend Area.
To learn more about him got to https://www.juanmperez.com/