poet, translator, editor, and educator

Roque Raquel Salas Rivera (he/they) is a Puerto Rican poet and translator of trans experience born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. His honors include being named Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, the Premio Nuevas Voces, and the inaugural Ambroggio Prize. Among his six poetry books are lo terciario/ the tertiary (Noemi Press, 2019), longlisted for the National Book Award and winner of the Lambda Literary Award, and while they sleep (under the bed is another country) (Birds LLC, 2019), which inspired the title for no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His most recent book, antes que isla es volcán/ before island is volcano (Beacon Press, 2022), won the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award and the Premio Campoy-Ada .

Salas Rivera has edited the anthologies Puerto Rico en mi corazón (Anomalous Press, 2019) and La piel del arrecife: Antología de poesía trans puertorriqueña (La Impresora & Atarraya Cartonera, 2023). From 2016 to 2018, he was a coeditor and translator for the literary journal The Wanderer. As co-founder of El proyecto de la literatura puertorriqueña/ The Puerto Rican Literature Project, he served as Supervisor of the Translation Team and Investigator from April 2021 until September 2023, when he retired from the project.

The Rust of History (Circumference Press, 2022), a selection of the poetry by his grandfather Sotero Rivera Avilés, was longlisted for the Pen Award for Poetry in Translation and ALTA’s National Translation Award. Salas Rivera also translated The Book of Conjurations by Irizelma Robles, winner of the Sundial Literary Translation Award, and the anthology Hijas de América Latina (ed. Sandra Guzmán, HarperCollins, 2023). His translation of Ada Limón’s poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will be traveling to Jupiter’s moon in 2024.

Salas Rivera holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania and lives, teaches, and creates in Puerto Rico. In collaboration with the queer, Ecuadorian press, Recodo.sx. he will soon publish la bella crisis, an homage to Puerto Rican syncretism. Accompanied by his cat, Pietri, he is also currently working on the trans epic poem Algarabía, which will be published in 2025 by Graywolf Press.

Roque believes in a free Puerto Rico and a better world. He feels loved eating star fruit and Rex Cream and sharing a tender embrace with a sincere friend.