Former English teacher and current writer, Montéz Louria’s fiction and creative nonfiction works are featured in numerous online magazines including Outlander Zine, Mouthy Mag, and Ghost Heart Lit. Before coming to Chapman, Montéz received her BA from the University of Baltimore.

Montéz Louria (‘22, Dual MA English/MFA Creative Writing) and Santa-Victoria Perez (‘22, Dual MA English/MFA Creative Writing) have

been honored as 2022 Emerging Writers by the Literary Women of Long Beach.

The mission of Literary Women of Long Beach is to make accessible to a wide range of readers the work of outstanding contemporary authors and, at the same time, to encourage new writers by including Emerging Writers in their annual Festival of Women Authors at the Long Beach Convention Center.

In memory of co-founder Harriet Williams, The Literary Women of Long Beach established an Emerging Writer Program in 2016 and named it in her honor. Williams formed The Literary Women Committee to ensure that the works of established women authors would be introduced to a greater reading public. It was to continue her vision that the Harriet Williams Emerging Writer Program was created.

With a committee of women from fifteen other community groups, of which Chapman University is a member, The Literary Women of Long

Born and raised in San Pedro, Mexican American writer Santa-Victoria Pérez received her BA in English from Biola University. Currently an MFA fellow at Chapman University, her writings focus on heritage, language studies, and family.

Beach also run the annual festival that brings the best of contemporary women writers to an eager audience. Invited authors meet with the honored emerging writers, who offer them invaluable support and advice.

The festival had its beginning in Long Beach in 1982, created when Williams and Virginia Laddey were appalled to discover the scarcity of women authors represented in the reading lists of local high schools. They decided to alter the imbalance by creating a festival showcasing women authors.

“They have partnered with Chapman University for the past five years,” Dr. Jan Osborn (English) notes, “a relationship that has resulted in several Chapman writers, both in the undergraduate and graduate writing programs, being featured… It’s wonderful to support [our] emerging writers.”

Congratulations to Montéz Louria and Santa-Victoria Perez!