Please welcome two of our newest members!

The DWPC welcomes local author and community activist Karen Gonzales. As a co-founder and board secretary of the Colorado Coalition of Latino Mentors and Authors (CALMA), Karen was instrumental in the highly successful year-long poetry collaboration between DWPC and CALMA in 2024.

Her published works include “Random Acts of Kindness with a Dreamer;” “Finding the Lady Llorona,” essay in the Almagre Review; “The Ranch,” essay in Ramas y Raices: The Best of CALMA anthology 2024; and The Mystery of La Llorona and Mister Llorón. She has been a member of the National League of American Pen Women, Las Comadres Book Club, Lighthouse Writers, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWD), and Colorado Independent Publishers Association.

When Charlene Garcia-Simms was four, her dad taught her that the letters t, h, and e made up a word. It was magical. At age ten, she made a life-changing trip with him to the Alamosa library to get her first library card. An English teacher discouraged her from writing, but undeterred, Charlene continued, eventually becoming one of our state’s most highly respected authors.  Growing up surrounded by relatives, she captures their vivid stories in Orphan Stalk, Growing Up Adopted in a Manito Culture. Her other works include: Will the Real Josefa Jaramillo Carson Come Forward; Pueblo: Images of America; and La Familia de Cordoba (East and West of The Sangre de Cristos). In addition to organizing our CALMA/DWPC poetry events, Charlene also brings her skills as a librarian and archivist, acquired during her career at CSU Pueblo.