Rigoberto González was born in Bakersfield, California and raised in Michoacán, Mexico. He earned a BA from the University of California, Riverside and graduate degrees from University of California, Davis and Arizona State University. He is the author of To the Boy Who Was Night: Poems Selected and New (2023), The Book of Ruin (2019), Unpeopled Eden (2013), winner of a Lambda Literary Award, and Black Blossoms (2011), all published by Four Way Books. His other poetry collections include Other Fugitives and Other Strangers (Tupelo Press, 2006) and So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water Until It Breaks (University of Illinois Press, 1999), a National Poetry Series selection.

González has also written multiple books in other genres including the novel Crossing Vines (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003), winner of ForeWord Magazine’s Fiction Book of the Year Award, the memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), which received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the critical essay collection Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition: Toward a 21st Century Poetics (University of Michigan Press, 2017), and the book of stories Men without Bliss (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008). He edited Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (Library of America, 2024), Alurista’s Xicano Duende: A Select Anthology (Bilingual Press, 2011), and Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing (University of Arizona Press, 2010). He has also written for The National Book Critics Circle’s blog, Critical Mass, and the Poetry Foundation's blog Harriet.

González’s awards include Lannan, Guggenheim, NEA, NYFA, and USA Rolán fellowships, a PEN/ Voelcker Award, a Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, a Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and lifetime achievement awards from the Publishing Triangle and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

A former critic at large for the LA Times, and contributing editor for Poets & Writers, González sits on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle, and on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist writers. González is the series editor for the Camino del Sol Latinx Literary Series at the University of Arizona Press. He is currently distinguished professor of English and creative writing at Rutgers University-Newark.

In 2025, González was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.