Benjamin L. Pérez teaches American History and English at Ex’pression College for Digital Arts. He earned his BA in Religious Studies/Folklore at UC Berkeley and went on to complete advanced degrees in Native American Studies/Folklore at UCLA and American History at UC Davis.

Pérez’s poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in various academic and popular print and on-line publications, including Watchword, Sacramento News and Review (SN&R), Cricket Online Review (COR), the American Indian Culture and Research Journal (AICRJ), and Ishmael Reed’s Konch. Although he enjoys being a historical consultant and researcher for the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, his real passion is creative writing. In 2005, Spuyten Duyvil published his experimental and transgressive work, The Evil Queen: A Pornolexicology, which made Dennis Cooper’s top-10 list for that year. His main literary influences are the Oulipo movement, biblical and Koranic exegesis, and his dyslexia, which is quite severe. In 2007, Pérez completed his MFA in English/Creative Writing at Mills College; in that same year he won the Mary Merritt Henry Prize for Best Group of Poems. He is currently putting the final touches on a “bi-textual” work: CUNTIONARY/Repent at Your Leisure (or The Folklore of Hell).