Deborah Paredez
Deborah Paredez is a poet, performance scholar, and cultural critic whose writing explores the workings of memory, the legacies of war, and feminist elegy. She is the author of the poetry collections Year of the Dog (BOA Editions, 2020), winner of the 2020 Writers’ League of Texas Poetry Book Award and a New York Times "New and Notable Poetry Book”, and This Side of Skin (Wings Press, 2002). Other works include the critical study American Diva (Norton 2024)--a Time Must-Read book of 2024--and Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke University Press, 2009).
Her poetry and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Boston Review, Poetry, Poet Lore, and the anthology, Inheriting the War: Poetry and Prose by Descendants of Vietnam Veterans and Refugees (Norton 2018). Her honors include an Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation Award and residencies from the Vermont Studio Center and Hedgebrook.
Paredez received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Performance at Northwestern University and her BA in English at Trinity University. She is a co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization that cultivates a community of Latinx poets, which she also served as a co-director from 2009–2019.
Born and raised in San Antonio, She lives in New York City where she is a
professor of creative writing and ethnic studies at Columbia University. For more information, please visit deborahparedez.com.
