Emma Trelles

Emma Trelles was born in Miami, Florida, and is the daughter of Cuban immigrants. She received her MFA in creative writing from Florida International University. 

A poet, writer, and educator, Trelles is the author of Tropicalia (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and a finalist for Foreword/Indies poetry book of the year, as well as the chapbook Little Spells (GOSS183, 2008).  

Trelles teaches creative writing at Santa Barbara City College, where she also coordinates the Writing Center, and has taught poetry writing workshops for O, Miami Poetry Festival, the Sanibel Island Writers Conference, Pintura Palabra: A Project in Ekphrasis, and in other academic and community-based settings.



Trelles is the recipient of fellowships and honors from the California Arts Council, CantoMundo, Letras Latinas, and the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.



For the last eight years, Trelles has curated the Mission Poetry Series. In April 2022, she became the series editor of the Alta California Chapbook Prize for Latine poets, which publishes chapbooks in bilingual editions through Gunpowder Press. She is the ninth poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California. In 2022, Trelles received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.