The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Born in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico in 1970, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro is a writer, poet, researcher, storyteller, and professor. In 2004, she published her first short-story collection Origami de letras (Ediciones Puertorriqueñas) and then her novel Los documentados (Ediciones Situm, 2005) the following year. She was also awarded the 2006 and 2013 Premio Nacional de Cuento PEN Club. Arroyo Pizzaro is the author of Ojos de Luna (Editorial Terranova, 2007), Avalancha (Publicaciones Boreales, 2010), Cachaperismos: poesía y narrativa lesboerótica (Publicaciones Boreales, 2010), Caparazones (Egales, 2011), Las negras (Editora Educación Emergente, 2012), Lesbianas en clave caribeña (Editorial Egales, 2012),Violeta (Editorial Egales, 2014), Golpes de gracia (La Pereza Ediciones, 2015), and TRANScaribeñx (Egales Editorial, 2017), among others. Her more recent publications include Afrofeministamente (Editorial EDP University of PR, 2020) and Afroqueeridades (Editorial Egales, 2023). Arroyo Pizarro was awarded the 2022 Letras Boricuas Fellowship.

In 2009, she was selected to participate in Bogotá 39,  a gathering hosted by the Hay Festival de Colombia and UNESCO, as one of the most important Latin American writers under the age of 39. In 2008, she received the Premio Nacional del Instituto de Literatura Puertorriqueña. Her books, for both adults and children, visibilize Afro-identities and sexual diversity. Arroyo Pizarro is a professor and resident writer at EDP University, and the director of the Cátedra de Mujeres Negras Ancestrales. She began working as freelance writer to develop the ¡Listos a jugar! Storybook with Plaza Sésamo in 2022.

Works Cited 

Arroyo Pizzaro, Yolanda. Interview. Conducted by Ana Castillo Munoz. Nov. 2022.

“Blog BOREALES: Escritos de Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro.” Narrativa de Yolanda, https://narrativadeyolanda.blogspot.com/. 

“Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro.” Flamboyan Foundation, https://flamboyanfoundation.org/fellow/yolanda-arroyo-pizarro/ .

“Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro.” Hablemos Escritoras, https://www.hablemosescritoras.com/writers/1547.