User:Alexandriaa.t/Sample page

Stella Santamaria (born in 1973 in Los Angeles, California) is what she calls "an experimental poet" who is "passionate about the influence of family, identity, migration, spirituality and place."

Santamaria wrote poems in both Spanish and English. Some of these poems were selected for her first book named “In Between Spaces,” published in 2014. This book was well-received by an online reviewer, Rick Najera, who wrote “a poet of depth and passion." Another of her books, “California Silence,” was a semifinalist for the 2021 Lighthouse Poetry series by the Cleveland State University Poetry Center.

Upbringing


Stella Santamaria was raised in the colorful bilingual Miami neighborhood known as “Little Havana.”  During her years as a student at Florida International University (FIU), Santamaria did performances combining her love for dance, choreography, and poetry, which she started writing when she was sixteen.

Education
She holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Saint Mary's College of California. She received several recognitions and awards like the School of Liberal Arts Dean's Award from Saint Mary's College, the Ancinas Family Scholarship from Community of Writers, and the Sandra Cisneros Fellowship from Under the Volcano. In addition, she was featured in the HBO Film and CNN Documentary Latino in America.

Career:

Her poem Ginger Moon Bulb was published by The Brooklyn in 2019, The Furious Gazelle published Cheers in 2019, and The Rumpus in 2020 published Surviving fifteen / Quince in Miami. Stella also wrote the poems Hades formerly known as PG + EEEEEEE, and In a haunted library in Northern California searching for my Cuban history.