Josh Galarza

Longtime Montessori educator Josh Galarza writes fiction and creative nonfiction and is a multidisciplinary visual artist specializing in printmaking and book arts. His research centers male gender performance, queer issues, body liberation, and Chicano issues. His debut novel, The Great Cool Ranch Dorito in the Sky (Henry Holt & Company), was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. His next young adult novel, False Face!, is forthcoming from Henry Holt & Company.

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Galarza holds an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he taught creative writing, and a BA in English and BFA in art from the University of Nevada, Reno, where he taught printmaking. He is currently on faculty in the Creative Writing & Literature for Educators MA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He lives in Northern Nevada.