Chicago’s Latina and Chicano Poets: An Overview

by Carlos Cumpián

While not all-inclusive, I’ve compiled a narrative index of living Chicago poets a quarter into the 21^st century. These authors have solid connections to our city and have, or will have soon, published books. In listing ethnic and gender identifiers, book titles, publication years, and publishers, I’ve attempted to provide readers a guide, at least to get started. I’ve also tried to provide a bit of background on each poet. I did not include poets from neighboring states, though many meet the yardstick of frequent Chicago reader or former Chicago resident. I didn’t list greats like Ana Castillo and Sandra Cisneros, whose wide exposure means they are constantly seen and read (Yes, they both have new poetry collections).

This dynamic duo read together recently--I’m talking about Chicagoan teacher, comedian, and poet Angelica Julia Dávila, author of Bilingual Bitch (Abode Press, 2025), and former Coloradoan now Chicagoan Marcy Rae Henry, winner of the 2024 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize for her Death is a Mariachi (Bauhan Publishing, 2025) and also the chapbook, Dream Life of Night Owls (Open Country Press, 2025). Both women are excellent readers, and you can expect their careers will continue to grow. They appeared this past September at the 40^th annual Printer’s Row Lit Fest.

Born and raised a Chicagoan of Puerto Rican heritage, Yolanda Nieves, veteran teacher at City Colleges of Chicago, has two poetry books, Dove Over Clouds (Plain View Press, 2007) and The Spoken Body (Plain View Press, 2010). Yolanda was one of four poets who closed last fall’s week-long ECOS: A Chicago Latine Poetry Festival, which was sponsored by The Poetry Foundation in collaboration with The Guild Complex and the National Museum of Mexican Art.  South Chicago Chicana performance poet, educator, and Slam Diáspora organizer Crystal Vance Guerra also read at the festival.

Another former City Colleges of Chicago English professor is Brenda Cárdenas. Cárdenas returned to her native Milwaukee after living in Chicago for a decade. She served as her city’s Poet Laureate from 2010 to 2012 and recently became the state of Wisconsin’s new Poet Laureate (2024 through 2027). Her chapbooks are: From the Tongues of Brick and Stone (Momotombo Press, 2005), Achiote Seeds/Semillas de Achiote (Achiote Press, 2008) in collaboration with Cristina Garcia, and Bread of the Earth/The last Colors (Decentralized Publication #2, 2011) with her Costa Rican poet and teacher husband Roberto Harrison. Her most recent perfect-bound books are Boomerang (Editorial Bilingüe/Bilingual Press, 2008) and Trace (Red Hen Press, 2023). In 2001, she co-edited the first of its kind Midwestern Latina poetry anthology with Johanny Vásquez Paz, Between the Heart and the Land/Entre el Corazon y la Tierra (March Abrazo Press).

Roberto Harrison is the author of Os (subpress, 2006), Counter Daemons (Litmus Press, 2006), bicycle (Noemi Press, 2015), Culebra (Green Lantern Press, 2016), Bridge of the World (Litmus Press, 2017), Yaviza (Atelos, 2017), as well as other limited-run chapbooks.

Another literary award-winning bilingual Chicago Puerto Rican (as of 2024, living in Spain), Johanny Vásquez Paz, shares her Spanish poems in the memorable collections La Sagrada Familia (Isla Negra Editores, 2014), which earned her the 2015 International Latino Book Award. Another book that has brought attention to her poetry is, I Offer My Heart as a Target, (Akashic, 2019) which was awarded the Paz Prize for Poetry.

Other Chicagoans of Puerto Rican heritage include Xenia Ruiz (Morena: Memoirs of a Humboldt Park Girl, 2021) and Elizabeth Marino, veteran poet, performer, and dedicated educator. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Marino’s resume includes the full-length hybrid poetry/memoir Asylum (Vagabond, 2020), and the chapbooks Debris (Puddin'head Press, 2011) and Ceremonies (dancing girl press, 2014); her work has been included in more than 20 anthologies.

Another accomplished Chicago Puerto Rican poet on the scene, Cynthia Pelayo, is also a horror fiction author; her top poetry books are Crime Scene (2022) and Poems of My Night (2016, both with--get this wild press name--Raw Dog Screaming Press).

Chicagoan Chicana Marisa Tirado is an excellent interpreter of her work on stage and in print; her witty first book, Selena Didn’t Know Spanish Either (Texas Review Press, 2023) is destined to be a collector’s item.

Olivia Maciel Edelman is a Mexican-heritage poet living in Highland Park, Illinois. She teaches in Chicago, where she writes and performs almost always in Spanish. Maciel’s fifth book is Cielo de Magnolias, Cielo de Silencios (Pandora Lobo Estepano Productions, 2015).

An individual that has done many Chicago and Midwest readings is a former Californian with Rockford, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin connections, and is a poetry zine editor, emcee and prolific “political” poet: Richard Vargas (Screw City, Roadside Press, 2025).

In 2024, La Casa Chicago Press and March Abrazo Press jointly published Pilsen Chicano poet and artist Pablo Ramirez with his radical, large Spanglish art book, Pocho Love. Also, Texas born and Chicago-raised, now retired teacher, Joel Mendez, came out with his first book, Forty Poems for City Living-Pilsen-18^th Street (March Abrazo Press, 2023). These authors of different generations write about music, food, and special people who have walked Chicago’s international multi-ethnic and Chicano culture in “Port of Entry” Pilsen.

Blue Island, Illinois-born Mexican-heritage bilingual veteran teacher José Bono’s newest poems in Spanish are Poemas de Frente y Al Reves (Manzana Editorial, 2025). Bolivian born author and Spanish-language literary reviewer, Miguel Marzana, has started his own imprint Editorial Manzana; his handsomely designed 101-page book is entitled a straightforward, Poemas de Chicago, (Amargord Ediciones, Madrid, España, 2024).

Paul Martinez Pompa and Angelica Julia Dávila read together to an enthusiastic audience at an October, 2025 Chicago Literary Hall of Fame program, Nuestros Corazones Literarios (Our Literary Hearts), in partnership with 18^th Street Casa de Cultura. A college English teacher, Pompa’s his third book of poems is Domestic Corpse, (Match Factory Editions, 2025); his earlier works are a 2006 chapbook Pepper Spray (Momotombo Press) and My Kill Adore Him, (University of Norte Dame, 2009), which Ruth Lily Poetry Prize winner Martin Espada praised.

Chicago born, barrio raised Jacob Saenz’s Throwing the Crown, (The American Poetry Review, 2018) won the APR/Honickman First Book Prize. Saenz is a CantoMundo fellow, and recipient of a Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship, as well as a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship. He was also an associate editor for the poetry journal RHINO.

Erika L. Sánchez, a Mexican-American from Cicero, Illinois, has succeeded as an essayist, magazine columnist, fiction author, and memoirist, and received wide acclaim for her debut poetry collection, Lessons in Expulsion (Greywolf Press, 2017). She was my poetry workshop student at Morton East High School. 

A far South Side Chicagoan, Chicano word dealer Luis Humberto Valadez set his poetry to music in Valid Lush (Plumberries Press, 2012), and followed that up with What I’m On (University of Arizona Press, 2015).

There are additional talented poets working as City College of Chicago English teachers, such as former Californian, now Chicagoan, Xicano Jose-Luis Moctezuma; his experimental poems are included in a rare chapbook, Spring Tlaloc Séance (Protective Industries, 2016), and full perfect-bound books Place-Discipline, (Omnidawn Publishing, Inc., 2018) and Black Box Syndrome (Omnidawn Press, 2023). 

Diego Báez, of South American heritage, emerged on the scene with his first book, White Yaguareté  (University of Arizona Press, 2023). Báez also runs an outdoor reading series (weather permitting) in Rogers Park near the lake. He teaches at Truman, also a City College of Chicago.

Humbolt Park Puerto Rican poet and performer, Luis “Logan Lu” Tubens has a first collection, Stone Eagle, (Bobbin Lace Press, 2019). Hard working Eduardo Arocho, Puerto Rican poet, editor, publisher, and tour guide, has published six books, including Hot Wings (2013) and The 4th Tassel (2006). Chicano poet Ramiro Rodriguez, son of award-winner Luis J. Rodriguez, has his first book of poems, Coming Home, (2023).

Guatemalan Chicagoan performance poet and writing instructor, Ivan Ramos, published a chapbook Heart Break Street, (2023), and also co-founded The Poetry Movement. In 2026, Editorial Manzana plans to publish a forthcoming book by Chicago’s master of the open mic emcee veterano of Weeds, Gregorio Gomez.

Another accomplished Chicago poet of Mexican/Latino heritage is promotional star José Olivarez, author of Citizen Illegal, (Haymarket Books, 2018) and the big, beautiful bilingual book, Promesas de Oro/Promises of Gold (H. Holt, 2023).

Another transplanted Californian of Costa Rican roots, teaching late into the night at City Colleges of Chicago’s Malcom X and organizing the on-line monthly Mercy Street Readings, is Ruben Quesada, whose Brutal Companion, (Itaska Books, 2024) won the Barrow Street Editors Prize.

Puerto Rican poet Frank Varela, former head of the Elmwood Park, Illinois library and the Humboldt Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library, has published two books in the 21^st Century—his page-for-page bilingual English and Spanish collection, Caleb’s Exile (ELF Workshop Press, 2009) and his Diaspora: Selected and New Poems (Arte Publico Press, 2019). Varela stays in touch with the Chicago poetry scene via the web.

Edgar Garcia is another California transplant, now professor at the University of Chicago; his work, including the essays in Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022) is accessible, even if it is at the same time scholarly. Gentle-spirited Mexican-heritage Evanstonian Raúl Niño’s beautifully designed chapbook, Still Life with Hands (2022) and A Book of Mornings (March Abrazo Press, 2007) are both relaxing reads. Another Pilsen-connected Mexican poet with his first book of poetry is Miguel Angel Ontiveros; Consecuencias (N’L XZILIO Producciones, 2025) contains attractive art images on the cover and interior from the great Alejandro Romero. Ontiveros has been published in Mexico and in Spanish-language literary journals here in the U.S., and also has acted and directed for the stage.

Raised on the Mexican and Texas border, El Paso and Juarez poet Miguel M. Arbizu has a terrific series of poems in Los Terregales (El Beisman Press, 2023). While not a poet, Antonio Zavala has helped organize many poetry readings “back in the day.” A fellow Chicano from Pilsen and Little Village, as well as a reporter for Spanish print media and veteran activist, Zavala published a short story collection, Pale Yellow Moon (CreateSpace, 2018), as well as Our Barrios Our Lives: Essays and Writings on Chicano Space, Art and Memory (Tenoch Press, 2023).

Lisa Fernandez Zapata is a Chicagoan with roots in Guatemala and is inspired by fantasy, science fiction, alternative rock music and Surrealist art. Her first book blends poetry and short stories: Inescapable Light (Long Overdue Press, 2025).

Daniel Borzutzky, a Chicagoan with Chilean roots, is a University of Illinois Chicago professor, translator and absolutely one of the most prolific poets to win the National Book Award. Here’s a shortened list of his acclaimed works: The Book of Interfering Bodies (Nightboat Books, 2011), The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016), Lake Michigan (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), The Murmuring Grief of the Americas (Coffee House press, 2024). Read his poems!

Beatriz Badikian-Gartler is originally from Argentina; she has published poetry, short stories, and essays since 1982. Her key poetic collection is Mapmaker Revisited: New & Selected Poems, (Gladsome Books, 1999). Badikian-Gartler was included in Wherever I’m At: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry (Third World Press & After Hours Press, 2022). She is also a professor, a frequent Newberry Library instructor, and an Illinois Humanities Council Road Scholar. 

The fact that I’ve included so many worthy poets, but omitted a great deal more, tells the story of the richness of Chicago’s Latina and Chicano literary network.

Carlos Cumpián is s a poet, editor and teacher. His latest book Human Cicada (Prickly Pear Publishing) marked his fifth poetry collection. He serves on the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors.