María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado

María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. She received a BA from Colby College, an MA from Tufts University, and an MFA from Pine Manor College.

Arroyo Cruzado writes poetry and prose that code-switch between English, Farsi, German, and Spanish—the cultural languages of her experiences. She is the author of Thought Here Would Cure Me of There (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2024); Landscapes: photos & poems (MultiCreative Wisdom, 2023); Resistencia: Resilience (Human Error Publishing, 2023), a collection of poems and essays; the chapbook Destierro Means More than Exile (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018); and Gathering Words/Recogiendo palabras (Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe, 2008).

Arroyo Cruzado has been awarded both a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and New England Public Radio’s Arts and Humanities Award.

In 2014, Arroyo was named the inaugural poet laureate of Springfield, Massachusetts. She is currently a Clark Fellow and is pursuing a PhD in comparative literature at SUNY Binghamton.