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Carmen Calatayud
Carmen Calatayud is the daughter of immigrants: A Spanish father and Irish mother. She is the author of two poetry collections, This Tangled Body (FlowerSong Press/Letras Latinas, 2024) and In the Company of Spirits (Press 53, 2012), which was a runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award and an Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize finalist. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Anti-Heroin Chic, The Banyan Review, Cutthroat, OyeDrum, Poet Lore, POETRY Magazine, Rogue Agent, Tahoma Literary Journal and Verse Daily. Her work appears in numerous anthologies, including Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands (Aunt Lute Press) and Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice (University of Arizona Press). She is a Larry Neal Award Winner, a Best of La Bloga winner, a Pushcart Prize nominee, a Best of the Net nominee, a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, and a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow. Calatayud is on the editorial staff of The Skinny Poetry Journal.
In 2010, Calatayud was selected by the Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón to be a poet moderator for Poets Responding to SB 1070, a Facebook group Alarcón created as part of the immigrant rights movement to combat Arizona’s racial profiling law SB1070. The original group of six poets engaged in online engagement, marches and national presentations until Alarcón’s death in January 2016.
Calatayud works as a mental health counselor in San Antonio, Texas.
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MORE ABOUT THIS ARTIST
Artist Type: Literary Arts: Author/Writer, Poet
Artist Statement of Work
Tell us about your work (style, approach, philosophy, subject and/or theme):
As a poet, writer and daughter of immigrant survivors of war, I believe poetry is a powerful art form for expressing, understanding and illuminating the complexities of our human experience.
My work explores the surreal qualities and stark realities of life, delving into themes such as war, migration, mental health, addiction, and the embodied experiences of trauma, violence, and chronic illness. It also seeks to reveal our deep connection to the spiritual realm, insisting that there is no boundary between the living and the dead.
In a world where many yearn for connection, my poetry searches for belonging. I confront the past, and am convinced that reflection on both our individual and collective histories is necessary for moving forward with wisdom and compassion. Poetry, for me, is a vehicle for voicing what has been left unsaid, and it offers potent medicine for the here and now.
My first book, In the Company of Spirits, which was a runner up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award, crosses borders--geographical, cultural and metaphysical. These poems of conscience amplify the voices of veterans, the homeless, people of the borderlands, and the unseen: ancestors and angels. Through a mystical lens, the poems offer a way to see and feel some of life’s greatest challenges.
My second collection, This Tangled Body, is a poetic memoir that navigates family history, war, migration, and the grit of relationships. Through lyrical language, these poems examine the resilience of a body marked by pain, grief and generational trauma. Elegies and love letters converge with celestial imagery to demonstrate that healing is possible when raw honesty and empathy meet.
Nature—water, sky, deserts, and celestial bodies—is a recurring motif in my work, underscoring our connection to the cosmos. This interconnectedness serves as both a grounding and expansive force, reminding us of our place in the universe.
As my work evolves, I am committed to continuing an excavation of the underworld human beings must move through, while delving deeper into the spiritual dimensions that infuse us with light. I'm developing a new collection that invites readers to engage with the place where identity, the social landscape and the soul converge. Poetry remains my shared vessel for truth, connection and transformation.
