Rosa Alcalá
Rosa Alcalá is a poet and translator from Paterson, NJ. The New York
Times describes her third and most recent book of poetry MyOTHER
TONGUE as capturing “the messy emotions and miscommunications
that move between languages” and a reminder of “how little precedent
there is for honest writing [about mothers and daughters], compared
with the epic traditions of fathers and sons.” Her poems and translations
have appeared in numerous journals, including Harper’s, The Nation,
Poetry, and American Poetry Review, as well as in the anthologies Best
American Poetry (Scribner, 2019 & 21. The recipient of a Foundation
for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists, a National Endowment for
the Arts Translation Fellowship, and runner-up for a PEN Translation
Award, she is the editor and co-translator of New & Selected Poems of
Cecilia Vicuña (Kelsey Street Press, 2018). She is currently a Consulting
Editor for the University of Chicago Press’ Phoenix Poets Series. Her
fourth book of poems, YOU, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press
in 2024.
