Juanita E. Mantz

Home is Where the Stories Are, Saturday, May 4th, 12:30 – 1:30pm, Mountain View Mausoleum

Juanita E. Mantz (“JEM”) is a USC Law educated deputy public defender. Her memoir Tales of an Inland Empire Girl won the 2023 Latino Books to Movie bronze award and her hybrid chapbook Portrait of a Deputy Public Defender, or how I became a punk rock lawyer won the 2022 International Latino Book gold award. Her stories have been published in literary journals, newspapers, and anthologies. She is an alumni of VONA and Macondo and received a 2023 California Arts Council Established Artist Grant. She’s in University of New Orleans’s low-residency MFA program. Check out her “Life of JEM” video podcast.