Carmen Calatayud is the daughter of a Spanish immigrant father and Irish immigrant mother. Her book In the Company of Spirits was a runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award, and a finalist for the Andrés Montoya Book Prize. Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies, and her writing has won a Best of La Bloga Award and a Larry Neal Poetry Award. From 2010-2015, Carmen was a poet moderator for Poets Responding, a Facebook group that featured poetry and news about Arizona’s 2010 immigration law that legalized racial profiling, and now focuses on a variety of human rights issues.

Carmen will read at JaxbyJax Literary Arts Festival on Saturday, October 13. Very exciting!