Born and raised in Miami, I am a scholar, poet, and educator currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Comparative Literature. I received a dual-degree in Visual & Critical Studies (M.A.) and Writing (M.F.A.) from California College of the Arts, where I focused on poetry and Cuban visual culture and served as Managing Editor and Art Director of Eleven Eleven Journal of Literature and Art. I received my B.A. in Literature and Spanish from New College of Florida, where I developed a comparative interdisciplinary honors thesis and short film on the subject of political displacement and intergenerational memory. I founded and managed the Oyster Kiln Literary Magazine from 2009–2012.
I am also a certified copyeditor and have experience in nonprofit communications and grant-writing from my time with Voice of Witness, a San Francisco-based organization that advances human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by injustice. I also worked for several years as a college writing tutor and writing center administrator.
My research focuses on Caribbean literature and visual culture, with a special emphasis on Cuba and its diaspora. My teaching interests also include Latin American and Latinx literature, performance studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, feminist and queer theory, and trauma and memory studies.
My critical writing on the Cuban balseros has been featured in the Smithsonian Learning Lab, and my pedagogical work on Caribbean landscapes appears in the National Humanities Center‘s digital library for educators. My poetry and other writings appear or are forthcoming in Denver Quarterly, VOLT, Art Practical, Jai-Alai Magazine, Tupelo Quarterly, and sx salon. My recent chapbook, Flight, is available from Volumes Volumes.