Carlos Cumpián

Carlos Cumpián is a Chicagoan originally from Texas. Human Cicada (Prickly Pear Publishing & Nopalli Press, 2022) is his fifth book of poetry; earlier works include Coyote Sun (March/Abrazo Press, 1990), Armadillo Charm (Tia Chucha, 1996),  14 Abriles (March/Abrazo Press, 2010), and the children's book Latino Rainbow: Poems About Latino Americans (Children's Press, 1994). Cumpián coedited We Are Still Here: Selected Art and Collected Poetry of Carlos Cortéz Koyokuikatl (Charles H. Kerr Publishers, 2023). In 2000, Cumpián was recognized with a Gwendolyn Brooks Significant Illinois Poet Award. He was also a finalist in the 2004 Illinois poet laureate search. His work has been reviewed in the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and the American Library Association Booklist Online, among other publications.

Cumpián’s work has been included in more than 30 poetry anthologies, including Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers (Norton, 1998.) Cumpián’s essays have appeared in Poetry magazine, including “Encounter Diana Solís” and in 2022, “A Chicago Original: Ana Castillo” for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Fuller Lifetime Achievement Awards book. In 2014, he published an essay on literacy, “Learned to Read at My Momma’s Knee,” for the anthology With a Book in Their Hands: Chicano/a Readers and Readerships Across the Centuries (University of New Mexico Press, 2014). Cumpián is also a playwright and wrote the satire Behind the Buckskin Curtain: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

Cumpián is the cofounder of March/Abrazo Press, the first Chicana, Native American, and Latino poetry small press in Illinois.