María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado

ABOUT

Born in Manatí, Puerto Rico and raised in Springfield, MA, María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado writes poems and now creative nonfiction essays in the four languages of her cultural experiences: Puerto Rican English, American Englishes, German, and Farsi. A resident of the Southern Tier of New York since August 2023 with an MA in German (Tufts University) and an MFA in Creative Writing | Poetry (Solstice MFA Program), she is pursuing her PhD in Comparative Literature at Binghamton University.

In May 2024, María received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Smith for her 20+ years of joyfully teaching poetry in many Massachusetts communities and for mindfully engaging undergraduate and graduate students with her feminist intersectional approach. As an adjunct graduate professor in the No-Residency MFA Program at Bay Path University, María teaches graduate students in two courses: “Writing about Race, Culture, and Identity”, and “Generational Histories: Writing about Family.”

Her publications include Thought Here Would Cure Me of There (Lily Poetry Review, 2024), Resistencia: Resilience | poems and essays (Human Error Publishing, 2023), Landscapes | photos & poems (2023), Destierro Means More than Exile (2018, 2024 second edition), and Gathering Words: Recogiendo Palabras (Bilingual Review Press, 2008). As part of her living legacy, María solicited submissins for and curated Pán•oply, an anthology of creative works by women and non-binary individuals who self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) through her micro-literary imprint, MultiCreative Wisdom.

Because she plans to continue to live in the area during and after her PhD journey, María strives to connect with, collaborate, and support creative writing and visual arts community members in Tioga and Broome Counties.