Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello

Poet

Miami, FL
Florida US
Twitter/X: 

Author's Bio

Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello is the author of Hour of the Ox (University of Pittsburgh, 2016), which won the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Award and Florida Book Award for Poetry. She and E. J. Koh co-translated The World's Lightest Motorcycle by Yi Won (Zephyr Press, 2021), which was awarded the Translation Grand Prize from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. She has received fellowships from the American Literary Translators Association, Kundiman, the Knight Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets, Catapult, Best Small Fictions, Kenyon Review Online, The New York Times, and more. A transracial adoptee born in South Korea, she is a founding member of the Starlings Collective, co-founder for the Adoptee Literary Festival and PEN America's Miami/South Florida Chapter, and serves as a program manager for Miami Book Fair.

Publications & Prizes

Book:
Hour of the Ox (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
Chapbook:
Last Train to the Midnight Market (Finishing Line Press, 2013)
Prizes won: 

 

  • NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, Prose, 2022
  • American Literary Translators Association, Emerging Translator Mentorship Program co-recipient with E. J. Koh under Don Mee Choi, 2017
  • Finalist for Binghamton University Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, Hour of the Ox, 2017
  • Bronze medal for Hour of the Ox, Florida Book Awards, 2016
  • Finalist for Annual Poetry Contest, Boston Review, 2016
  • Finalist for Curt Johnson Prose Award in Creative Nonfiction, "Nocturne: Year of the Snake," december magazine, 2016
  • Finalist for Ninth Annual Poetry Prize, "Vase of Ashes," Tupelo Quarterly,​ 2015
  • ​Finalist for Seventh Annual Poetry Contest, "Bonsai," Narrative Magazine, 2015
  • Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, for Hour of the Ox, Association of Writers & Writing Programs Award Series, 2015
  • Kundiman Fellowship, 2014

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Asian American
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
South Korea
Raised in: 
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Jan 25, 2024