González is the author of eighteen books of poetry and prose. His awards include Guggenheim, NEA, NYFA, and USA Rolón fellowships, the PEN/Voelcker Award, the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America. A critic-at-large for The LA Times and contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, he is currently Distinguished Professor of English and Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.