Dorothy Parker Reads Here interview with Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta

Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta (she/they) is a full professor at the City University of New York-BCC, and has been appointed to the Ph.D. faculty of the CUNY Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies program at the Graduate Center. Their poetry collection, Things to Pack on the Way to Everywhere, was a 2020 finalist for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize (Get Fresh, 2021). Her next book, Wild, is forthcoming from FlowerSong Press, in late 2026. She is the editor of Latina Outsiders (Routledge, 2019), which was listed in NBC Latino’s Hispanic History Month suggested reads. Dr. Acosta is the Creative Writing Editor at Chicana/Latina Studies, a Poetry Editor at Women’s Studies Quarterly (WSQ), and will be Co-Head Editor at WSQ starting in June, 2026. Select work is in Poetry Magazine; Poem-A-Day; The Baffler; Best American Poetry; Acentos Review; Hopkins Review; and Women’s Media Center. She has been an invited speaker at Lincoln Center, The Poetry Foundation, and the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery, among many other venues and universities. Most recently, their oral history project on Latinos from Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood was accepted and housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Additionally, they are a 2025 New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Mid-Atlantic Arts Fellowship recipient. Dr. Acosta’s work is focused on gender, environment, mental health, Latinidades, and community.