Victor Manuel Mendiola was born in Mexico City in 1954, and is the author of a number of poetry collections, including Vuelo 294 (1997), Las 12:00 en Malinalco (1998), and Papel Revolución (2000). A career-spanning retrospective volume, Tan oro y ogro (1987–2002) — effectively a Collected Poems — was published by the Universidad Autónoma de México in 2002, and won New York's Latino Literature Prize. He has also published two books of critical essays on Hispano-American poetry: Sin Cera (2001), and Breves Ensayos Largos (2001), as well as being the editor of the anthologies Antología Poesía Mexicana, Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos (1996), Poesía en Segundos (2000) and Sol de Mi Antojo, Antología Poética de Erotisismo Gay (2001). He was a writer in residence at Banff and has received awards from Mexico's Sistema Nacional de Creadores. He was the President of Mexico's PEN Club from 1997 to 2000. Mendiola is the publisher and editor of Ediciones El Tucán de Virginia, a poetry small-press in Mexico City which he founded in 1980, and which has published over 200 volumes. His literary criticism has appeared in Mexico's principal newspapers and magazines. He has also directed a number of international literary festivals in Mexico and, in 2010, won first prize for his novel, 4 para Lulú — written under the name of Roberto Luna — at the Letras del Bicentenario sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 2010, administered by the State of Mexico.