Urayoán Noel

1976 –
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Urayoán Noel was born on April 12, 1976, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was raised in Río Piedras. Noel is a professor, cultural organizer, poet, critic, translator, performer, artist, and writer. 

Noel is the author of eight books of poetry, including Transversal (University of Arizona Press, 2021), which was recognized as Book of the Year by the New York Public Library; Buzzing Hemisphere/Rumor Hemisférico (University of Arizona Press, 2015); In Visible Movement (University of Iowa Press, 2014), a critical study of the Nuyorican movement, which received the Latino Studies Award from LASA; and Boringkén (Ediciones Callejón/La Tertulia, 2008), which was named Book of the Year by El Nuevo Día. Noel has also been a finalist for the National Translation Award and the Best Translated Book Award for his translations of Latin American poetry. In 2022, he was named an inaugural Letras Boricuas Fellow by the Flamboyan Foundation

Noel lives in the Bronx, New York, and is the director of graduate studies of New York University’s Creative Writing in Spanish MFA program.