BIO
Diana Marie Delgado has dedicated her career to advancing social justice and the arts. She has made significant contributions to the following esteemed organizations, including the Clinton Foundation, the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and Hugo House. A poet, her first collection, Tracing the Horse, was a New York Times Noteworthy Pick and follows the coming-of-age of a young Mexican-American woman trying to make sense of who she is amidst a family and community weighted by violence and addiction. Her chapbook, Late-Night Talks with Men I Think I Trust, was the 2018 Center for Book Arts winner and she has published poetry in Ploughshares, Ninth Letter, New York Times Magazine, Colorado Review and Tin House. Her literary interests are rooted in her experiences growing up Chicana in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California. With over a decade of experience working and writing in New York City, Delgado has developed extensive expertise in collaborating with and within communities of color.
Delgado, the first in her family to graduate high school and attend college, transferred from Mt. San Antonio community college to UC Riverside, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Poetry. She possesses a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University and her selected honors and awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Hedgebrook, UCross, Breadloaf, and the James D. Phelan Foundation. She is a CORO leadership fellow and member of the Iyengar Foundation. A playwright as well, Delgado had directed plays at both INTAR and La MaMa. She is a member of the CantoMundo and Macondo writing communities. She is the editor of the upcoming poetry anthology, Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration, (Haymarket Books, March 4, 2025 ).
Photo credit: Felicia Zamora