ABOUT

jo reyes-boitel is a queer, mixed Latinx poet and playwright, editor and scholar. jo is also an amateur hand percussionist. As an MFA graduate in Creative Writing from the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, jo was a Presidential Research Fellow and served as an undergraduate creative writing instructor.

Beginning Fall 2024 jo will start the PhD program at Texas Tech University in English with an emphasis on literature, social action, and the environment. jo’s scholarly work centers on decoloniality, and the role of longing and mourning in reclaiming culture inheritance. Their creative work centers on themes of home, migration, femme identity, and disability/the body as considered within intimate spaces.

Publications include Michael + Josephine (FlowerSong Press, 2019), mouth (Neon Hemlock, 2021), and the matchstick litanies (Next Page Press, 2023). Their forthcoming book, the impracticality of silk: poems, will be released in July 2024. Recent publications include Zócalo Public Square, Huizache Magazine, and Acentos Review. jo has also written and produced “she wears bells”, a hybrid opera, which was a finalist in Guerilla Opera’s 2022 virtual festival. Their newest play, “susto”, was performed as part of Convergencia, an interdisciplinary gathering of artists within the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley. jo is a fellow of Macondo and VoNA/Voices of Our Nations.