R. Flowers Rivera is a Mississippi native with a Ph.D. in African American literature and creative writing from Binghamton University. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia and holds an MA from Hollins University , in addition to an MS from Georgia State University.
Rivera was awarded the Leo Love Merit Scholarship in Poetry in association with the Taos Summer Writers Conference. Her short story, "The Iron Bars," won the 1999 Peregrine Prize. She is a 2002 finalist for the Naomi Long Madgett Award for Poetry, and she received two nominations for Pushcart XXVII. She was also a 2001 finalist for the May Swenson Award for Poetry and the Journal Award in Poetry. Her work has been anthologized in Mischief, Caprice & Other Poetic Strategies (Terry Wolverton, ed.). She is a Professor of English at Collin College in Plano, Texas.




