Mónica de la Torre

Born and raised in Mexico City, Mónica de la Torre is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Repetition Nineteen (Nightboat Books, 2020), and a translation of Defense of the Idol (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018) by Chilean Modernist Omar Cáceres . 

De la Torre coedited, with Alex Balgiu, the anthology Women in Concrete Poetry 1959–79 (Primary Information, 2020) and with Michael Wiegers, the collection Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2002). She is also the coauthor of the book Appendices, Illustrations, & Notes (Smart Art Press, 2000) with artist Terence Gower. She edited and translated the volume Poems by Gerardo Deniz, and has translated numerous other Spanish-language poets.

About De la Torre’s work, the poet Mary Jo Bang has written: “Rather than relying on false certainties and pat recollections, de la Torre offers up a fine-tuned sense of the ridiculous, a world of tomfool capers with a hint of the macabre.”

In 2022, De la Torre received the C.D. Wright Award for Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

De la Torre has served as the poetry editor of The Brooklyn Rail and senior editor of BOMB Magazine. She lives in New York City and teaches at Brooklyn College and Bard’s summer MFA program.