Desirée Alvarez is an award-winning poet / painter exploring the reciprocity of poetry and painting. Her work foregrounds nature as Magic Operator and voices her passion for connection with flora and fauna. She has received grants and awards from Foundation for Contemporary Arts, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the European Capital of Culture. Her second book, Raft of Flame, 2020, received the Lake Merritt Poetry Prize from Omnidawn. Devil’s Paintbrush received the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. Her work is anthologized in Other Musics: New Latina Poets (University of Oklahoma Press), What Nature (MIT Press), and Stronger Than Fear: Poems of Empowerment, Compassion, and Social Justice (Cave Moon Press). Alvarez exhibits internationally and has recently done projects with Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Central Booking, and New-York Historical Society. She has received fellowships from Poets House, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Yaddo, and P.S. 122. Her poetry has appeared on The Slowdown podcast, and in Poetry Magazine, Boston Review, Fence, and The Iowa Review. She teaches at The Juilliard School and CUNY.