Francisco Mendoza was born in the wine region of Mendoza, Argentina, and even as a kid he was passionate about storytelling, spending every house-chores-earned peso at the used book store. He dreamed of traveling the world like his literary heroes, a dream that became real when he was 12 and his family relocated to Brazil. After graduating from Journalism school, he pursued a career in marketing, but the child reader in him kept pushing him to tell stories, and he eventually received a fellowship at the Tisch School of the Arts' dramatic writing M.F.A. program. Moving countries a second time, Francisco is now pursuing a cross-medium career in New York, which has thus far spanned plays, a full season of a podcasts, and a few opinion pieces (as well as the odd short story).
During his time at MacDowell, he worked on his first novel, a magical and heavily fictionalized account of his mother's life. For more about his work and a comprehensive (if boring) list of credits, visit notrealmendoza.com.
Portrait by Daniel J. Vasquez
