Manuel Iris

Manuel Iris is a Mexican-born American poet. He is the author of six poetry collections: Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos / The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters (University of Arizona Press, 2026), co-translated with Kevin McHugh; Descifrar lo invisible / Rozszyfrować niewidzialne (Editorial Ultramarina C&D, 2023), with Polish translations by Marta Eloy Cichocka; The Parting Present / Lo que se irá (Dos Madres, 2021), which won the Reader’s Choice Award at the 2022 Ohioana Book Awards; Traducir el silencio / Translating Silence (Artepoetica Press Inc., 2018), which received two honors at the International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles; The Disguises of Fire / Los disfraces del fuego (Atrasalante, 2014), winner of the Rodulfo Figueroa Regional Award of Poetry (Mexico) and a finalist for the International Award of Poetry Ciudad de la Lira in Ecuador; and Notebook of Dreams / Cuaderno de los sueños (Educal, 2009), winner of the “Merida” National Award of Poetry (Mexico). 

In 2023, the Autonomous University of Chiapas in Mexico published Translator of Silence: Critical Approaches to Manuel Iris’s Literary Works / Traductor del silencio: acercamientos críticos a la obra de Manuel Iris, a collection of essays, reviews, and interviews by twenty-three authors exploring his poetry. 

In her citation for The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters, Ambroggio Prize judge Giannina Braschi wrote:

Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos / The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters is an imaginative, earnest, and timely depiction of the causalities of mass migrations to the United States from Latin America. The poet pays homage to the migrant who will not be remembered or missed if lost. There is an intriguing parallel between two main characters—Juan Domínguez, migrant of fire, and Hieronymus Bosch, portraitist of fire—whose early lives are marked by the catastrophic fire from which they were born into new names, new ways, new lives.

Iris has held several distinguished positions, including writer in residence at the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library and writer in residence at Thomas More University. In 2022, he was named a member of the National System of Art Creators of Mexico. He currently lives and writes in Cincinnati, where he served as poet laureate from 2018 to 2020.