During the last three decades Professor Herrera has received numerous  awards and fellowships including various National Endowment for the  Arts Writers' Fellowships, four California Arts Council grants, the UC  Berkeley Regent's Fellowship, the Breadloaf Fellowship in Poetry, and  the Stanford Chicano Fellows Fellowship. With twenty-one books in  total, during the past ten years, Professor Herrera's publications include fourteen collections of poetry, prose, short stories, young  adult novels and picture books for children. His literary endeavors  have garnered the Ezra Jack Keats Award, the Hungry Mind Award of  Distinction, the Americas Award, and the Focal Award. Herrara is also a  community arts leadership builder with youth-at-risk and migrant  communities, and an actor with appearances on film and stage. The Upside Down Boy, a musical for young audiences based on his book, was well received in New York City in 2004.