The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Raina Juanita León was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A professor, critic, poet, and editor, she is the author of four collections of poetry and a book of essays: black god mother this body (Black Freighter Press, 2022), Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self  (Alley Cat Books, 2019), Profeta Without Refuge (Nomadic Press, 2016), Sombra: dis(locate) (Salmon Poetry, 2016), Boogeyman Dawn (Salmon Poetry, 2013), and Canticle of Idols (Wordtech Communications Inc., 2008). She earned a BA in journalism from Pennsylvania State University in 2003; an MA in the Teaching of English from Columbia University in 2004; an MA in educational leadership from Framingham University in 2014; a PhD in Culture, Curriculum, and Change from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2010; and an MFA in creative writing and poetry from Saint Mary’s College of California in 2016. León’s work explores motherhood, Blackness, and identity and is strongly influenced by her time studying in New York City and performing with the Nuyorican poetry community. A former CantoMundo, Macondo, and Cave Canem fellow, León was also influenced by the writers Sonia Sanchez, Martín Espada, Lucille Clifton, Federico García Lorca, June Jordan, Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde, and Pedro Pietri. In 2008, she co-founded the literary magazine The Acentos Review with the Puerto Rican poet Eliel Lucero. León has worked closely and collaborated with the poets Jasminne Mendez, Darrel Alejandro Holmes, Tonya Foster, Alan Pelaez Lopez, Ariana Brown, Grisel Acosta, Yesenia Montilla, Malcolm Friend, Tongo Eisen-Martin, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs, among others.

Works Cited

León, Raina. Author Questionnaire. The Puerto Rican Literature Project, 2024.

León, Raina. Interview. Conducted by Claire Jimenez, 29 Oct. 2021.