J. Andrew Rodriguez has turned a lifelong passion into reality with Robins Facing South. For Rodriguez, writing is a way of capturing the privilege of living. Preserving his interpretation of what was felt, dreamed, loved and learned is his way of participating in “the ancient cycle of life.”

Born and raised near Corpus Christi, Texas, Rodriguez spent seven of his most formative adult years in Oklahoma, where he went to study law at the University of Oklahoma soon after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. A job in El Paso to work in the undocumented alien legalization program in the mid-1980s led Rodriguez to travel throughout the United States. This included the Pacific Northwest, where he returned to permanently in 1990 after ending his active practice of law. Another job, this time with state government, again led to travel which allowed Rodriguez to explore the various and diverse regions of Washington State. An extensive consulting assignment in Mississippi in 1992 led to life-changing encounters with the cultures and peoples of the deep South.

Although planning to first publish a collection of short story fiction, Robins Facing South evolved into a poetic expression of Rodriguez’s journeys and experiences. He continues to work on his short story fiction collection, and his second collection of poetry. Rodriguez’s commentaries have appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (one had to do with the death of his friends in the terrorist bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building). A guest commentary also aired on National Public Radio affiliate KPLU (Tacoma-Seattle).

Rodriguez lives and writes in Seattle.

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