Selected by Poets & Writers Magazine as a 2014 Notable Debut Poet, poet-
dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez draws inspiration from the silent and silenced
voices of history and herstory. Her poetry collection, the small claim of bones
published by Bilingual Press, is a finalist for the 2015 International Latino Book
Awards. Her CD “Emerald Heart” features her Aztec-inspired poems accompanied
by pre-Hispanic music. Poems and reviews have appeared in Borderlands, Calyx,
Harvard’s Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México’s Periódico de poesía, Portland Review, Quiddity, Rain Taxi,
Rattle, and ZYZZYVA. Plays include Words That Burn which premiered at Milagro
Theatre in 2014 to commemorate the William Stafford Centennial and Hispanic
Heritage Month, and A Dialogue of Flower & Song featured in the 2012 GEMELA
(Spanish and Latin American Women’s Studies) Conference co-sponsored by the
University of Portland and Portland State University.
Cindy earned an MFA from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Program
with concentrations in Mesoamerican poetics and creative collaboration. A
passionate educator, she has taught poetry to K-12 youth through the Portland
Art Museum, the Right Brain Initiative, and Writers in the Schools as well as to
adults through Literary Arts’ Delve Seminars, the Oregon Council for Teachers of
English, and the Stonecoast MFA Program. Cindy is a founding member of Los
Porteños, Portland’s Latino writers’ collective, and the founder of Grupo de ’08, a
Northwest collaborative-artists’ salon inspired by Lorca’s Generación de ’27.
A Lesson on Creation from Sor Juana in the Novitiate
Cihuacuicatl, or Song of Women
Complete Reading from Mountain Writers Series 2010
Father’s Memory of a Mexican Mining Camp
Miccacuicatl, or Song for the Dead
Miccacuicatl, or Song for the Dead
Sor Juana on Immortality