Roque Salas Rivera

• Born — 1985 • Birthplace — Mayaguez, Puerto Rico • Occupation — Poet • Notable Works — Caneca de anhelos turbios, tierra intermitente, lo terciario

Salas Rivera was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico and moved to Madison, Wisconsin when he was 6 months old. During his childhood years, he lived in California, Nebraska, Alabama, and Texas. He returned to Puerto Rico during his teenage years and young adulthood, moving to Philadelphia for graduate studies. His grandfather, Sotero Rivera Avilés, was a Puerto Rican poet belonging to the Guajana Generation, as is his mother, linguist Yolanda Rivera Castillo. Salas Rivera attended the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez for his undergraduate degree, and had an instrumental role in organizing student protests at that campus in 2010. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania and was selected as the fourth Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2018.

Salas Rivera's writing emphasizes movement and often deals with themes of migration and the experience of belonging to multiple homes and allegiances. He prefers to write in Spanish, and later sometimes translates his works to English. For public readings, he often recites works only in Spanish, asserting that "It's a political act" to have an audience of non-Spanish speakers listen to a language they don't understand, as the momentary discomfort echoes the everyday struggles of immigrants who don't yet understand the language of their new country. His work lo terciario/the tertiary addresses the Puerto Rican debt crisis and impact of the 2016 United States PROMESA Law that transferred control of the island's finances and outstanding debt to an external control board. Salas Rivera titled each book section after Marxist economic ideas from Das Kapital: "The Debt-Production Process," "The Debt-Circulation Process," and "Notes on a Derailed Circulation", beginning each poem with a quote by Karl Marx, as both a critique and a subversion of Marxist language. Salas Rivera identifies as non-binary and uses he/him and they/them pronouns. He has adopted the Spanish word "buchipluma", in as a neologism for a "non-binary feathered butch" to describe his gender identity. One of his inspirations is the Puerto Rican Latin trap singer Bad Bunny. To Salas Rivera, poetry has given him "an inside", "an outside", and "a means for talking about things", referencing gender identity. Acknowledging a historical lack of transgender persons' voices in literature, Salas Rivera has attempted to "navigate" this gap by speaking from a transgender perspective. During his tenure as Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, Salas Rivera created a multilingual poetry festival called "We (Too) Are Philly" inspired by the work "I, Too" by the African-American poet Langston Hughes. The summer 2018 festival, co-organized with poets Ashley Davis, Kirwyn Sutherland, and Raena Shirali, featured Philadelphia-based poets of color. The goal of the organizers was to diversify the poetry scene to encourage the mixing or desegregation of audiences, while selecting locations of significance to particular Philadelphia neighborhoods that usually do not host poetry readings. Roque's 2025 book, Algarabía, is a trans epic poem written in Puerto Rican Spanish and English. Both Spanish and English covers incorporate a centaur illustration by Natalia Bosque Chico. It won the 2026 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature.

Salas Rivera lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2017, Salas Rivera and Allison Harris raised thousands of dollars to assist lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Puerto Ricans who were impacted by Hurricane Maria that year. Through his efforts, he was able to bring 5 queer/transgender persons to the United States and support them, with assistance from the Mazzoni Center.

• Books of poetry • 2025: Algarabía. Graywolf Press, • 2022: antes que isla es volcán / before island is volcano. Beacon Press, OCLC 1277183477 • 2020: x/ex/exis. Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe. • 2019: Puerto Rico en mi corazón, ed. Salas Rivera, Maldonado, Mena, Del Valle Schorske, Anomalous Press. • 2019: while they sleep (under the bed is another country). Birds, LLC. • 2018: lo terciario/the tertiary, OCLC 1055273795 • 2017: tierra intermitente/intermittent land. Ediciones Alayubia, 1st ed. • 2017: Desdominios. Douda Correria. (Portuguese translation) OCLC 1076641364 • 2016: oropel/tinsel. OCLC 1021770124 • 2011: Caneca de anhelos turbios, OCLC 764494213 • Artist books • Gringo Death Coloring Book, with art by Erica Mena and Mariana Ramos Ortiz • Editorial works • #27: Indigenous Futures and Imagining the Decolonial, co-edited with BBP Hosmillo and Sarah Clark, Anomalous Press. • Puerto Rico en Mi Corazón, co-edited with Erica Mena, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, and Carina del Valle Schorske, Anomalous Press. • The Wanderer, co-editor, 2016-2018. • Contributor to anthologies • 2018: Small blows against encroaching totalitarianism., OCLC 1049785850 Salas Rivera has also published in periodicals such as the Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Apiary, Apogee, BOAAT, and the Boston Review.

• Philadelphia's 2018-2019 Poet Laureate Helps Puerto Rico's LGBTQ+ Community, April 23, 2018, Philadelphia Neighborhoods 3 • Streets Dept. Podcast #9 - Interview with Raquel Salas Rivera • Free Library of Philadelphia - Introducing Philadelphia's 2018-2019 Poet Laureate Raquel Salas Rivera • Navigating Distance: A Conversation on Contemporary Puerto Rican Poetry, November 29, 2018, Kelly Writers House

• Poets House 2018: Showcase Reading Series: Denizé Lauture, Katy Lederer, Raquel Salas Rivera, Chen Chen, August 2, 2018, Poets House • AAWWTV: Translation/Migration Mixtape with Raquel Salas Rivera, Janice Lobo Sapigao, Adeeba Talukder, April 23, 2018, Asian American Writers' Workshop • Presentación de oropel/tinsel en Libros AC, February 23, 2017, Raquel Salas Rivera