LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ grew up in Watts and East L.A. His bestselling memoir about gang life, Always Running (now available in paperback in both English and Spanish from Touchstone Books), won the Carl Sandburg Award. His Poems Across the Pavement (Tía Chucha Press) won the Poetry Center Book Award from San Francisco State University, and his poetry collection, The Concrete River was awarded the 1991 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Poetry. Mr. Rodríguez has worked extensively with gang members to guide them in positive directions, and he is frequently featured as a keynote speaker or guest poet at national conferences and cultural centers. Rodríguez explores the Chicano experience with an unrelenting, socially conscious eye that moved Larry Weintraub of the Chicago Sun-Times to call him a poet "we need to hear."