Maya Christina Gonzalez

Maya is an artist, author, and educator. She has long collaborated with Children’s Book Press illustrating multicultural children’s books. Although, she does not consider herself an illustrator she has illustrated nearly 20 children’s books and received numerous awards including the 2008 Pura Belpré Honor Award for illustration for My Colors, My World. This was the first book Maya both illustrated and wrote. She has since written and illustrated another book, I Know the River Loves Me, which was released in 2009.

Since 1996, Maya has been providing presentations to children and educators about the power of reflection in our children’s media and the importance of creativity as a tool for personal empowerment. She has witnessed remarkable experiences in classrooms and auditoriums around the country. Through her work with educators and children, she, together with her husband Matthew, cofounded Reflecion Press. The mission and goals of Reflection Press have been a vision of Maya's for quite some time and are now finally coming to fruition.

Maya grew up in the Mojave Desert in Southern California during times when virtually no imagery existed that reflected her experience as a biracial, Chicana. Throughout her life she used creativity as a tool to find, explore, and know herself. Her art is featured in many art books including on the cover of Living Chicana Theory and Contemporary Chicano/a Art.