Like a child, the writer in me is always learning, playing & searching. And when I finally bought my poetry a killer outfit and took it to the ball, it was first noticed by the editors at NALAC’s literary journal, Label Me Latina/o. Since then, my poem, How to Kill a Mango Tree won a finalist spot in the Atlanta Review Poetry Prize 2023 with other poems following suit in Howard University’s The AMISTAD, Latino Book Review, Acentos Review, the South Florida Poetry Journal, West Trestle Review, La Libreta Poetry Journal, In Parentheses, NOMADartx Review and other esteemed publications where I’m honored to share space with so many amazing poets. And Spring 2024 my collection, We Are the Cultivated Sins is on exhibit at the ARTE LATINO NOW 2024 showcase (link forthcoming). Since its debut, my poetry has connected with countless editors & readers and for that, I am forever humbled & grateful!
Jump to MY POEMS page for all my published work.
This 2024 I feel honored to have been awarded a Las Musas Mentorship and I’m beyond grateful for the opportunity to be mentored by the distinguished, widely celebrated and awarded, Cuban-American poet, Margarita Engle! I can’t wait to learn and grow as a poet, writer and a person…DALE!
LONG STORY SHORT: I rediscovered poetry under a blanket in my mind’s attic tucked between the edges of all the things I needed to say, freed and scattered in words across blank pages in whatever order my heart dispersed them, without rhyme or reason (well, maybe a little bit of rhyme) and catapulted my work into the ether, hoping to fuel that much-needed fire of social change. Flames we must stoke when the world turns cold and I’m proud to join the boisterous cannon of authors & poets that came before me and those already doing the hard work!
I’m working on multiple projects:
a full poetry collection about my/our immigrant experience through multiple voices – as I continue work on my debut novel-in-verse a lá THE POET X meets WHEN YOU WERE EVERYTHING about 16 year-old Cuban & ex-bestie from opposite sides of the Miami tracks. . . AND because I can’t committed to just one story at a time, I also continue to work on my Middle Grade debut novel about a twelve year-old Cuban girl who braves the pressures of middle school to fight toxic masculinity and harassment at her school. AND because I can’t commit to just one…I’m working on a third YA novel (equal parts family saga, suspense, and coming-of-age) rooted in Cuba’s volatile slavery period and exploitation under Spanish rule, in which readers follow the 17 year-old Cuban protagonist as she navigates family secrets and growing pains of assimilation as a first-generation kid in an exile family living in the parts of Miami not covered by travel brochures.
Click around my site but I highly recommend the Book Review section – home to some amazing reads!
Pero…I’ll confess the funnest part (yes, I said funnest) section is the ¡Rápidito & Loud! page because in lieu of not being able to publish all my poetry samples online for obvious reasons, it’s a tiny corner where I indulge in quick-ish not-quite-poetry & not-quite-prose rants about things I love or hate depending on the day and the mood. ¡So, dale! Go check it out!
In the section Cuban Stuff you can linger a bit and learn things about me as a Cuban immigrant, the memories, foods, music, and culture that make me who I am.
Thanks for visiting! Don’t forget to stop by the Contact page and drop me a note…or keep scrolling for some of my BLOG pieces on the writer’s life.
Anyély Writes 