Phillip D. Cortez

Phillip Dominic Cortez was born in El Paso, Texas where he 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 new book, "Ava & the Monsters, was released in the summer of 2015. A couple of projects are on the horizon, including a collection of short stories and essays for young adults as well as another project aimed at a young adult audience called "Summer Son."

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.

Cortez frequently contributes to the Monkey C Blog.