Nick Carbó

Nick Carbó grew up in Manila in the Philippines. He received an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College in 1992 and a PhD in poetry from the University of Manchester in 2010.

Carbó is the author of the poetry collections Andalusian Dawn (WordTech Communications, 2004); Secret Asian Man (Tia Chucha Press, 2000), winner of an Asian American Literary Award; and El Grupo McDonald’s (Tia Chucha Press, 1995). He has also edited several anthologies of Filipino literature, including Pinoy Poetics: A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino American Poetics (Meritage Press, 2004) and Returning a Borrowed Tongue: An Anthology of Filipino and Filipino American Poetry (Coffee House Press, 1995).

Carbó frequently invokes American pop culture in his poetry. The poet Maureen Seaton describes Secret Asian Man as “this robust postmodern superfantasy, this shockingly transgressive anti-colonial yarn of sex, the city, and human-hearted Everyman.”

Carbó has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He taught Columbia College in Chicago and New College of Florida. He also served as poet in residence at the University of Miami. Carbó died in October 2024.