Fusing the real with the surreal and the natural world with human relationships, Ray Gonzalez creates his own brand of magical realism. Gonzalez also brings pop humor in such poems as "The Guitars," which uses the word "guitar" in almost every sentence to talk about the true (and not so true) lives of rock stars. David Lazar notes, "Ray Gonzalez may be our most essential prose poet."

Ray Gonzalez's awards include the 2003 Minnesota Literary Award for Poetry, and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Book Award. He has published nine poetry collections and edited twelve anthologies, including "No Boundaries: Prose Poems by 24 American Poets."