Vince Gotera writes poems and stories, as well as the occasional creative nonfiction or critical article. His books include the three poetry collections — FIGHTING KITE, GHOST WARS, and DRAGONFLY — as well as the critical study RADICAL VISIONS: POETRY BY VIETNAM VETERANS (more on them in the "Books" section below).

Vince's writing has appeared in PLOUGHSHARES, THE KENYON REVIEW, THE ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN JOURNAL, CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW, and other literary magazines, as well as in such anthologies as CONTEMPORARY FICTION BY FILIPINOS IN AMERICA, TILTING THE CONTINENT: SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICAN WRITING, and FROM TOTEMS TO HIP-HOP: A MULTICULTURAL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY ACROSS THE AMERICAS, 1900-2002. His poetry blog is titled THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR (there's a link to the blog over to the right).

Vince has been a Professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa since 1995. He has also taught at Indiana University, Humboldt State University, Grinnell College, and Wartburg College. He also frequently teaches creative writing at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival sponsored by the University of Iowa.

Vince earned an MFA in poetry writing and a PhD in English from Indiana University. Other institutions where he has studied include Stanford University and San Francisco State University, where he earned his BA and MA, respectively.

Since 2000, Vince has been Editor of the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, originally established in 1815, the longest-lived literary magazine in the US. He was also Associate Editor of the LITERARY MAGAZINE REVIEW (1995-2001) and Poetry Editor of ASIAN AMERICA: JOURNAL OF CULTURE AND THE ARTS (1991-1993).

Gotera has won international, national, and local awards for his writing and teaching. In 2004, Gotera won the Global Filipino Literary Award in Poetry, an international award sponsored by the journal Our Own Voice. His national awards include a Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts (1993), The Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry from The Madison Review (1988), the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award in poetry (1988), and an Academy of American Poets Prize (1988). He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times. At the University of Northern Iowa, Gotera won a Faculty Excellence Award from the College of Humanities and Fine Arts (2006).

Born and raised in San Francisco, Vince also lived in the Philippines for some time as a young child. He now lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with his wife Mary Ann and their four children — Amanda, Amelia, Melina, and Gabriel — along with their soft-coated wheaten terriers, Ginger and Blue.

Vince also has a son, Marty, from a previous marriage. A graphic artist, Marty lives with his wife Grace in Bielefeld, Germany.

In those rare moments when Vince has free time, he plays electric bass, guitar, and a little bit of drums — blues, rock, a taste of jazz. He used to play in a blues tribute bar band. He now plays bass guitar and drums occasionally in church bands — no cigarette smoke, no drunks, no wannabe musicians.

Vince's favorite color is any shade of blue, in all its dynamic flavors: teal, aquamarine, cerulean, cornflower, sky, cobalt, indigo.