Alexandra Lytton Regalado

Short bio:

Alexandra Lytton Regalado is a Salvadoran-American author, editor, and translator. She is the author of Relinquenda, winner of the National Poetry Series (Beacon Press, 2022); the chapbook Piedra (La Chifurnia, 2022); and the poetry collection Matria, winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). A CantoMundo and Letras Latinas fellow, her work has appeared in Poetry, Best American Poetry, BOMB, World Literature Today, Agni, poets.org and Creative Nonfiction. Her translations of contemporary Salvadoran poetry are published or forthcoming in New England Review, Poetry International, FENCE, and Tupelo Quarterly. She has translated poetry collections by Elena Salamanca, Tania Pleitez, Lauri García Dueñas, Dorelia Barahona, and co-translated Efímero by heidi restrepo rhodes. She also serves as the official translator for the Alta California Chapbook Prize, now in its third year. Alexandra is co-founder of Kalina Press in El Salvador (est. 2006) and has edited over twenty works, including the bilingual anthologies of Salvadoran literature Theatre Under My Skin (Poetry, 2014) and Vanishing Points (Prose, 2017). She is president of the board of the Salvadoran Cultural Institute and assistant editor at SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami). www.alexandralyttonregalado.com

Long bio:

Alexandra Lytton Regalado is the author of Relinquenda (Beacon Press, 2022), winner of the National Poetry Series. Relinquenda was included as a Featured Fall Book at Poetry.org and was recommended by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review, The Harvard Review, Harriet Books at the Poetry Foundation, and The Morning Star. Her first poetry collection, Matria (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), is the winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award. Matria was listed as one of the Favorite Poetry Collections of 2017 at Literary Hub, it was a finalist in two categories for the 2017 Foreword INDIES Award, and featured in NBC News, Chicago Review of Books, and Entropy.

Her poems, stories, and non-fiction have been published in Poetry, poets.org, Agni, BOMB, Creative Nonfiction, Diode, Five Dials, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review, The Notre Dame Review, Narrative, The Shallow Ends, World Literature Today, The Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, and others. Her poetry has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry, The Wandering Song, In Plein Air, Misrepresented People, Poeta Soy (Ministry of Education of El Salvador, 2019) and Jardín de sangre (Editorial Ladrones del Tiempo, Colombia, 2020).

Alexandra’s translations of Latin American poetry have been included or are forthcoming in the New England Review, Poetry International, Fence, and Tupelo Quarterly and she is the translator of Family or Oblivion / La familia o el olvido by Elena Salamanca, Prewar / Preguerra by Tania Pleitez, Tectonic Movements by Dorelia Barahona Riera, A Small Miracle / Un pequeño milagro by Kijadurías; she is co-translator of Ephemeral / Efímero by heidi restrepo rhodes.

She has served as a judge for literary prizes including the Neustadt Prize 2024, the Andrés Montoya Prize, the Poetry International Prize, the Alta California Chapbook Prize, as well as the Juegos Florales, the annual national prize in El Salvador. Alexandra has been a reader for the National Poetry Series and for the Miami Book Fair fellowship. She currently serves on the advisory board for the Lorca Latinx Prize and she is a humanities advisor for the Latino Poetry Initiative of the Library of America.

Co-founder of Kalina publishing, Alexandra is author, editor, and/or translator of more than fifteen Central American-themed books including Vanishing Points: Contemporary Salvadoran Prose (2017). She is the series translator for the Alta California Chapbook Prize and she is chief editor at lapisuchamagazine.com (a literary magazine dedicated to the Salvadoran community). Alexandra is assistant editor at SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami) and she is the president of the board of directors of the non-profit Salvadoran Cultural Institute.

Alexandra has taught online courses in poetry and prose for Hugo House, the Poetry Coalition/Letras Latinas, Woodland Pattern, Broward College, and others.

She holds an MFA in poetry from Florida International University and an MFA in fiction from Pacific University. She is a Letras Latinas and CantoMundo fellow and the winner of the 2015 Coniston Poetry Prize.

Alexandra has a black belt in Kenpo Karate and currently lives in San Salvador with her husband and three children. Her ongoing photo-essay project about El Salvador, through_the_bulletproof_glass, is on Instagram and you can also find her at https://www.instagram.com/alexlregalado/