Phillip Cortez

El Paso, Texas native Phillip Dominic Cortez became fascinated with books and stories at a very early age. It wasn’t long before he wanted to write his own stories.

“I was always making up stories to try and get out of trouble anyway,” he laughs. “But that sort of comes with the territory when you’ve got four brothers.”

Cortez began his career as a freelance sports writer, writing stories for his local paper and later moving onto writing editorials and feature stories for different publications. His children’s book, Night Rhythms, was published in 2011 followed by When I Close My Eyes in 2013. His current book, Ava & the Monsters, was released in the summer of 2015. In 2016 Cortez will release Pancakes For Dinner! (Waldorf Publishing). He is currently working on a collection of short stories and essays, tentatively titled Your Poor Mother.

Cortez still loves to read and, with his wife, Patty, is now fascinated by the many stories told by their four children: Ivan, Cameron, Ava and Zoe.

He frequently contributes to his blog, called The Moment, and avoids donuts whenever he can (which is seldom).