Thelma T. Reyna
National Award-Winning Author,
Editor/Writing Consultant, & Owner/Publisher of Golden Foothills Press
Thelma T. Reyna’s books have collectively won 20 national book awards. She has written 6 books-- a short story collection, 2 poetry chapbooks, and 3 full-length poetry collections-- and has edited 3 anthologies: as Poet Laureate in Altadena, CA in 2014-2016, she edited the Altadena Poetry Review Anthology in 2015 and 2016. Then in 2020, Thelma edited a ground-breaking anthology, When the Virus Came Calling: COVID-19 Strikes America.
Dr. Reyna’s fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in literary journals, anthologies, textbooks, blogs, and regional media for over 25 years. She was selected as a “Top 10 San Gabriel Valley Poet, 2016” by Spectrum Publications and was a Pushcart Prize Nominee in Poetry in 2017. She also won the “2011 Women in Business Award, Most Inspirational” for her work as an author, presented by California State Assembly and State Senate legislators for the Pasadena (CA) district.
Dr. Reyna has curated and coordinated numerous readings of fellow Southern California poets and other authors from across America for in-person and virtual events. She has also organized literary panels, emceed book launches, and judged literary competitions. Recently, she has served as keynote speaker at a large university symposium and regularly appears as featured or solo author at literary events and podcasts. She received her Ph.D. at UCLA.
Dr. Reyna is available for private writing consultation and organizational events, including speaking engagements and classroom visitations.
Contact her at GoldenFoothillsPress@yahoo.com
Winner of 3 National Awards
Dearest Papa: A Memoir in Poems
Former Poet Laureate Thelma T. Reyna weaves her nationally-recognized skills as poet and as storyteller to craft a stirring, heartfelt memoir in poems that captures the essence of her husband’s brave, love-filled life—and the despair she navigated and surmounted when her spouse of 50 years died suddenly in minor surgery.
***********************************************
A book of love and grief showing how memory is the sharp needle that sews the fabric of our lives together again. As Thelma Reyna writes so beautifully, “This is how we sink, to rise, how brokenness is patched together again.”
--Cassie Premo Steele, Ph.D.
Author of Tongues in Trees
Thelma T. Reyna has pinned down "lovely" with these beautifully crafted memoir poems…. They are intimate, personal poems, and when you finish, you'll want to kiss someone you love.
--Mary Langer Thompson, Ph.D.
Senior Poet Laureate of California, 2012
Dearest Papa is a solid, humble testament of how each millisecond of life expands into a bigger story that represents all of us….a deep, detailed poetic account of love and coupling, as delicate as tender gets….as haunting and beautifully bold as naked could ever be.
--Beverly M. Collins,
Author of Mud in Magic
Naji Naaman Literary Prize
For more information, please visit www.GoldenFoothillsPress.com
A Bit About Me
I’ve always been passionate about writing and the influence that our shared ideas have upon our culture, our civilization, on people and the choices we all make. Plus: literature, especially poetry, brings immense beauty and wisdom into our lives as well.
But the love of books and writing was not a given in my childhood. My parents were school dropouts; my mother's parents never attended school, and my grandfather was illiterate. Poverty affected them as well as my large family (7 brothers, 1 sister) as we were growing up. My love of school and devoted teachers in my life helped me to overcome a disadvantaged background, growing up as an American Latina in a small, poor Texas town. I learned that the only limits your life will have are those you allow.
Being a published author is one of my life's great joys, not only in seeing "the fruits of my labor" and sharing them with friends, family, colleagues, and our larger community, but also getting to know like-minded souls: authors whose creativity and talent enrich my life and that of so many other fellow human beings.
The Southern California Poets Laureate
L-R, Thelma, Laureate in Altadena, CA; Marlene Hitt, Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga; Mary Langer Thompson, California Senior Poet Laureate; and Maja Trochimczyk, Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga. In the back row is Radomir Vojtech Luza, continuing Poet Laureate of North Hollywood.
THELMA T. REYNA'S BOOKS
National book awards won by Reyna’s books, most recent to earliest awards:
Dearest Papa: A Memoir in Poems--
2021: Finalist, Book Excellence Award/Poetry
2020: Finalist, International Latino Book Awards/ Best Biography
2020: Finalist, International Latino Book Awards/ Best Poetry in English, Single Author
When the Virus Came Calling: COVID-19 Strikes America--
2020: Finalist, Best Books Award/ Anthologies
2020: "Latino Books of the Year/Anthologies," Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club
Reading Tea Leaves After Trump --
2020: Finalist, Best Books Award/ Current Events
2018: Winner, Gold Medal: International Latino Book Awards/Political Issues
2018: Winner, Silver Medal: International Latino Book Awards/Poetry in English, Single Author
2018: Winner, NYC Big Book Awards/ Political Issues
2018: Finalist, Indie Excellence Book Awards
2018: Finalist, BEA, Book Excellence Awards
2018: Finalist, Beverly Hills Book Awards/ Political Issues, Poetry
Altadena Poetry Review Anthology --
2016: Winner, BEA, Book Excellence Award/Anthology
2016: Winner, Beverly Hills Book Award/Poetry
Rising, Falling, All of Us --
2014: Finalist, USA Best Books Award/Poetry
The Heavens Weep for Us and Other Stories --
2010: Finalist, The National Best Books Award/Short Fiction
2010: Winner, Eric Hoffer Award/ Short Fiction
2010: Honorable Mention, Montaigne Medal/ Short Fiction
2010: Finalist, Indie Excellence Book Awards/ Literary Fiction
For 3 poetry books --
US Review of Books, RECOMMENDED Status/Poetry (won 3 times: 2014, 2015, 2016)
*****
"We write for the same reason we walk, talk, climb mountains...because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings."
--Maya Angelou
