Born to a Spanish father and Irish mother in the U.S., Carmen Calatayud is a poet and nonfiction writer in Washington, DC.
In the Company of Spirits, Calatayud's first poetry collection, was published in October 2012 by Press 53. Calatayud's book was chosen by award-winning poets Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root for Press 53's Silver Concho Poetry Series. In 2010, In the Company of Spirits (at the time the title was Cave Walk) was chosen by poet Marvin Bell as a runner-up for the Walt Whitman Award, given by the Academy of American Poets. Calatayud is a Larry Neal Poetry Award winner and the recipient of a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellowship.
Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, La Bloga, Más Tequila Review, PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art and Red River Review. Her poems are anthologized in various collections, including Mondo Barbie (St. Martin's Press), DC Poets Against the War: An Anthology (Argonne House Press) and the upcoming Poetry of Resistance: A Multicultural Response to Arizona SB 1070 and Other Xenophobic Laws, to be published by University of Arizona Press in 2014. Calatayud's nonfiction writing has appeared in publications for several nonprofit organizations.
In the 1990s, Calatayud lived and wrote in Tucson, where she worked as a radio announcer, voice-over artist and executive director of Literacy Volunteers of Tucson. After returning to Washington, DC, she became a member of DC Poets Against the War in 2003.
Calatayud is a poet moderator for Poets Responding to SB 1070, a Facebook group created by poet Francisco X. Alarcón, that features poetry and news about the Arizona immigration law that legalizes racial profiling, as well as copycat laws in other states.
Calatayud works as a psychotherapist and addictions counselor in Washington, DC.