Bianca Alyssa Pérez is a poet based in central Texas.

Bianca Alyssa Pérez (she/her) is a Latina poet, educator, and editor born and raised in Mission, Texas – a small southern town bordering Mexico. She holds her MFA in Poetry from Texas State University, where she also teaches and coordinates the MFA in Creative Writing program. She was the 2022-2023 Clark House Writer-In-Residence in Smithville, TX. Her chapbook, Gemini Gospel, is published with Host Publications. She is also the co-host of the horror podcast, Basement Girls, with writer, Steph Grossman.

In my writing, I aim to delve deeper into my Latin roots to pull up images and themes of family, spirituality, religion, body identity, and myth. Particularly, I wish to gravitate towards the moments where all these aspects of my identity collide.

Due to my father’s passing, I have found myself writing elegies to him and for him. With the elegies that I have already written, I can see Catholic images and Latin myths blending with memories of my father. I’m interested to see how my psyche brings me closer and closer to healing, although I imagine I will grieve my father for the rest of my life. As for form, most of my poetry relies on free verse but I have been challenging myself to practice other forms that will serve my poetry and its message.

I admire the poetry of Mary Oliver, Sylvia Plath, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sharon Olds, Olivia Gatwood, Octavio Paz, Federico Garcia Lorca, Alta, and Naomi Shihab Nye. For identity and feminist theory, as well as a more theoretical approach to culture, I enjoy the work of Melissa Febos, Roxane Gay, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua, and Audre Lorde.