Leonora Simonovis

Leonora Simonovis is the author of Study of the Raft, selected by final judge Sherwin Bitsui as the winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry and recipient of an Honorable Mention at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards.

Her chapbook, Waiting for a Ripe Mango, was a finalist for the Tupelo Press Snowbound Chapbook Contest in 2019 and her work has appeared in Whale Road Review, DMQ Review, The Hopper. About Place Journal, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, Arkansas International, and Diode Poetry Journal, among others.

Leonora holds a Ph.D in Hispanic literatures from Washington University in St. Louis and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles. She has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from VONA, the Poetry Foundation, The California Arts Council, Sundress Academy for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, she now lives in San Diego, CA, on the unceded territory of the Kumeyaay Nation and is a Professor of Latin American and Caribbean literature and culture at the University of San Diego (USD), where she also teaches creative writing in Spanish.