The 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in the North End of Springfield, MA, María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado earned degrees in German (Colby, Tufts) and an MFA (Solstice). She writes poetry and nonfiction prose that code-switch between English, Puerto Rican Spanish, German, and Farsi, the cultural languages of her experiences. Her collections include Thought Here Would Cure Me of There (2024), resistencia: Resilience (2023), Destierro Means More than Exile (2018) and Gathering Words: Recogiendo palabras (2008). She was named the Poet Laureate of Springfield, MA (2014-2016) and received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Smith College (2024) for facilitating community poetry workshops and readings, many in partnership with the Springfield City Library. A Clark Fellow, she is joyfully pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at Binghamton University. Her online teaching includes “Generational Histories” and “Writing about Race, Culture, and Identity” in the Creative Nonfiction MFA at Bay Path University.