Xicanxfuturism: A Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction Reading

Join the UT San Antonio Creative Writing Reading Series on April 8th at 7:30 PM on Main Campus, Mckinney Humanities Building (3.01.28) for XicanXfuturism: A Sci-Fi and Speculative Fiction Reading with contributors: Xicano Writer Scótt Russell Dúncan, Artist Luis Valderas, Poet Juan Manuel Pérez, Writer R.Ch.Garcia, and Writer Javier Guajardo.

XicanXfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow Codex I is a codex of speculative futurist thought, art, comics, novellas, stories, flash fiction, poetry, and essays exploring the Xicanx tomorrow as our numbers and cultura grow today. Contributors include Xicanx sci-fi veterans, social justice thinkers, influential speculative artists, and trailblazing new writers charting the future for our gente: elindiocopyright1985, Osmani Ochoa, Luis Valderas, Pedro Iniguez, Martin Hill Ortiz, Ernesto Ayala, Angela Acosta, Juan Manuel Pérez, Erika Said Izaguirre, E.C.-Dukes, Ronnie Dukes, Patrick Fontes, Ernesto Mireles, Natalia Rivas, Sendy (Sail) Tapia, Juan G. Berumen, Irene Blea, Fabio Chee, R. Ch. Garcia, Scott Russell Duncan, El Henry Madrid, Victoria Bañales, Salvador Ayala, W.O. Torres, Joe Menchaca, Rocio Anica, Frederick Luis Aldama, Ricardo Tavarez, Catrióna Rueda Esquibel, Dante Olivas, Gerardo Aldana, Ernest Hogan, Javier Guajardo, M.M. Olivas, Joel Flores, and Samantha  “Eggsy” J. and Colton “Cuca” Campbell.

Edited by Scott Russell Duncan and Jenny Irizary, this codex is not just a collection. It is a call, a vision, and a grito for the worlds we will walk upon.

Published by Riot of Roses.

Meet the Contributors: 

Scótt Russell Dúncan

Scótt Russell Dúncan, a Xicano writer, edited the first Chicano sci-fi anthology, El Porvenir, ¡Ya!: Citlalzazanilli Mexicatl and is creator and editor of Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow, Codex I. He is director of Palabras del Pueblo writing workshop and co-creator of Maíz Poppin’ Press. His novel, Old California Strikes Back, a magic memoir and meta-novel described as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets Yo Soy Joaquin, is published through FlowerSong Press. www.scottrussellduncan.com

Luis Valderas

Luis Valderas received a BFA in Art Education from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1995. In 2005, Valderas co-founded and produced Project: MASA I, II,III, IV & V—a national group exhibit series that continues to feature Latinx artists and focuses on Chican@ identities. He co-founded The A3 Press and Bishop & Valderas, LLC. a large-scale printmaking community engagement collaborative and production house. Currently, Valderas is a mentor and board member for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). He has exhibited at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia(MOA), Medellin Museum of Art, Colombia, the Queens Museum, NYC and the UCR-Arts Block, Riverside, CA. His work is featured in books such as Altermundos-Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film and Popular Culture-2017,  Mundos Alternos-Art, Science Fiction in the Americas-2017,  Chicano Art for Our Millennium-2004, and Triumph in Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art-2005. His work  is in the permanent collections of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), Arizona State University, Art Museum of South Texas, and the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Juan Manuel Pérez

Juan Manuel Pérez, an Indigenous Mexican-American poet and the Poet Laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of numerous poetry books including the recently released bilingual haiku collection, THE ENIGMATICAL SPHERE OF EL CHUPA-KU (Space Cowboy Books, 2025) as well as the award-wining, poetic-memoir, THIRTY YEARS AGO: LIFE AND THE FIRST GULF WAR (2023). Juan, a former migrant field worker, is also the 2021 Horror Authors Guild’s Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award winner and a recipient of a 2021 Horror Writers Association Diversity Grant. This poet’s credits also include a recent Honorable Mention in the Poetry Society Of Virginia’s 2025 Veterans Poetry Project/Edward W. Lull Memorial Contest, two International Latino Book Honorable Mention Awards (2025), one Regal Summit Book Award (2024), an Honorable Mention in the 2025 Inaugural War Poetry Postcard Contest, one Best Of The Net Nomination (2023), two Aphelion’s Best Poetry Of The Year Listings (2023, 2024), two Pushcart Prize Nominations (2017, 2023), three Elgin Book Award Nominations (2021, 2022, 2023), four Rhysling Award Nominations (2011, 2012, 2013, 2020), four Dwarf Star Award Nominations (2012, 2020, 2021, 2022) with one Honorable Mention win in 2022, and one H.E.R.O.I.C. People’s Choice Award Nomination (2024). To learn more about this award-winning poet, migrant field worker, combat vet, history teacher, and Native American Gourd Dancer, please check out his official website at: https://www.juanmperez.com/ .

R.Ch.Garcia 

Garcia’s speculative stories appear in Latinos in Lotusland, Needles and Bones, Rudy Rucker’s Flurb, Lost Trails: Forgotten Tales of the Weird West, Cricket’s Revista Iguana, and the Xicanxfuturism Codex II and the RMFW 2026 Anthology. Contests: honored by Writers Digest Fiction Contest, 1st in Somos en Escrito’s Extra Fiction Contest. His novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams, honored by the International Latino Book Awards; his SW/Mexico fantasy Death Song of the Dragón Chicxulub took 1st place with ILBA Fantasy Book-to-Movie; his YA fantasy The Obsidian Princess and the Grandest Gardener is set in Mexico 100 years before Cortez. More at rchgarcia.com

Garcia is a co-founder of LaBloga.blogspot.com, holds a B.A. in Writing from the University of Colo.-Denver and retired as a Denver bilingual elem. teacher.

Writing in Northside Denver, Garcia gardens, landscapes, woodworks and cares for cacti and wild birds that visit his and his wife Carmen’s gardens. Plus he has two Nietos, a bright, friendly dog Menqui, and a sorta feral cat, Panther. His adopted credo: “Give up on the adults!” [P. Bacigalupi]

Javier Guajardo

Javier Guajardo is just starting out writing and publishing speculative fiction. He has published one story, “Edgar Alvarado’s Mal-Sueño of Real Estate” which appeared in Latin@ Literatures in 2023. His second story, “Requiem for the Biohuman” will appear in Xicanxfuturism Codex 2 later this summer. Originally from the Rio Grande Valley, he’s working on getting his first novel accepted by a publisher who isn’t afraid of mixing sci-fi with cultura Tejana. Many years ago, a transporter accident created an evil version of him who uses the last name Rodríguez. Rodríguez worked as a newspaper reporter in the 1980s in various Texas cities before going back to graduate school and getting a Ph.D. He taught US-American literature at the college level and retired last year. These days, Guajardo lives in San Antonio and tries to avoid the internet.