Sarah Rafael García, M.F.A.

education

M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Texas State University

B.S. in Applied Sociology, Minor in Spanish, Texas State University

BIOgraphy

Sarah Rafael García is an award-winning author and literary arts advocate raised in Santa Ana, California. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Fiction and cognate in Media Studies from Texas State University. As a child of immigrants and a first-generation university graduate, she knows first-hand what it means to fail and triumph in life. Her first book Las Niñas (2008) speaks to her loss and upbringing, and her second book, SanTana’s Fairy Tales (2017), is part of an oral history multimedia exhibition awarded by the Andy Warhol Foundation, and most recently a required Ethnic Studies text in the Santa Ana Unified School District. She has co-edited various anthologies, including pariahs: writing from outside the margins (2016) and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers (2021), among other publications. García is the founder of Barrio Writers (2009), LibroMobile (2016) and Crear Studio (2017). In 2023, she was honored as a Woman of Distinction by State Senator Tom J. Umberg and a Kickass Woman by Orange Coast Magazine.

 

As a Chicana multimedia artist, García addresses what it means to be a child Spanish speaker, a teen trauma survivor, a nontraditional M.F.A graduate in the American School System — and now an arts leader who aspires to build equity and visibility for her BIPOC community in Orange County via the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative. Currently, she splits her time establishing the Modesta Avila digital archives and collaborative arts programming through the digital humanities, which includes community-based partnerships with UCI Libraries & Special Collections and the Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium at CSUF. Sarah Rafael García is the CSUF Chicana/o Studies Department & Latinx Lab Visiting Professor of Creative Writing for the 2023-2025 academic years.

publications

García, Sarah R. “The Women of the Vietnamese American Arts Scene in Orange County.” KCET Artbound. March 2022. Web. https://www.pbssocal.org

 

García, Sarah R. “Sergio O'Cadiz and the Forgotten Artists of Color in Orange County.” KCET Artbound. March 2022. Web. https://www.pbssocal.org

 

García, Sarah R. “Collecting and Re-presenting US History: Digital Storytelling as Archives.” Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. January 2021. Web. https://recoveryprojectappblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/21/collecting-and-re-presenting-us-history-digital-storytelling-as-archives/

 

Garcia, Sarah R., Goodwin, Matthew D. and Hernandez, Alex, Speculative Fiction for Dreamers. Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State Press (anthology), 2021

 

García, Sarah R. “Culture Shock.” Feminist Pilgrimage: Journeys of Discovery. Sacramento, California, Litwin Books. September 2020. Print.

 

García, Sarah R. “The Bidi Bidi Bom Bom that keeps us dreaming...” Dreaming: A Tribute to Selena Quintanilla-Perez. McAllen, Texas, FlowerSong Press. August 2020. Print.

 

García, Sarah R. “Celebrating 40 years in Orange County, the O.C. Black History Parade Continues to Represent the Diversity in the Region.” Voice of OC. February 2020. Web. https://voiceofoc.org

 

García, Sarah R. “When I Had to Give Up Flour Tortillas, I Lost My Culture.” Eater. April

2019. Web. https://www.eater.com/2019/4/23/18308561/mexican-flour-tortillas-gluten-intolerance

 

García, Sarah R. SanTana’s Fairy Tales. Houston, Texas: Raspa Press (Short Stories), 2017

 

García, Sarah R. and Monica Teresa Ortiz, pariahs, writing from outside the margins.

Nacogdoches, Texas: SFA Press (anthology), 2016

 

García, Sarah R. Barrio Writers Seventh Edition. Nacogdoches, Texas: SFA Press (anthology), 2016

 

García, Sarah R. Barrio Writers Sixth Edition. Nacogdoches, Texas: SFA Press (anthology), 2015

 

García, Sarah R. Las Niñas, A Collection of Childhood Memories. Mountainview, California: Floricanto Press (Memoir), 2008

RESEARCH INTERESTS 

Digital storytelling, digital humanities, and multimedia arts, performance ethnography, BIPOC science fiction and speculative fiction, BIPOC oral histories in Orange County, women of color histories of Orange County, BIPOC arts in Orange County, first-generation narratives, BIPOC creative writing, media studies