Luivette Resto

Born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, poet Luivette Resto was raised in the Bronx. The first in her family to graduate from college, Resto earned a BA at Cornell University and an MFA at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she studied with Martín Espada.

Resto’s poems engage themes of romantic love and cultural identity. In a 2008 blog interview with blogger Cindy E. Rodríguez, Resto discussed her commitment to the art, stating, “I enjoy the challenge of finding the right set of words to express a series of thoughts, emotions, or observations in a compacted space. For me, poetry can be the most beautiful way to express some of the most painful yet truthful side to life.”

Resto is the author of the poetry collections Unfinished Portrait (2008), which was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, and Ascension (2013). A CantoMundo Fellow, she has taught at Citrus College and Mt. San Antonio College, and has served as a contributing editor for Kweli Journal. She lives with her family in the Los Angeles area, and hosts the monthly reading series La Palabra in Highland Park.