Generation 305 / Escribe Aquí Festival Writer’s Room Residency 2025 

Cohort Bios
Curated by: Caridad Moro-Gronlier, Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County

Jubi Arriola-Headly (he/him) is a Black queer poet, storyteller, first-generation United Statesian, and the author of two collections of poems: ORIGINAL KINK (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2020), recipient of the 2021 Housatonic Award, and BOUND (Persea Books, 2024). He’s currently at work on a collection of essays, an excerpt of which received the 2023 First Pages Prize for Creative Nonfiction. Jubi lives with his husband in South Florida, on ancestral Tequesta, Miccosukee, and Seminole lands.

Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello is the author of Hour of the Ox (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016), winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. She co-translated Yi Won’s The World’s Lightest Motorcycle (Zephyr Press, 2021), which won the 2022 Translation Grand Prize from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea. Cancio-Bello has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Knight Foundation, and American Literary Translators Association, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Poets & Writers, and more. She is co-founder of the Adoptee Literary Festival and serves as a program manager for Miami Book Fair.

Olga B. Carballo is a licensed Mental Health Counselor, Miami-Dade County Public School
Teacher, Adjunct Professor, Mindfulness-Based Interventions Practitioner, and a Youth Mental
Health First Aid Instructor (YMHFA). She has over 25 years of extensive experience working with young people with disabilities and their families, helping them gain understanding and skills for success in life. In addition to her clinical and educational roles, Olga is also a dedicated poetry instructor and aficionado, who integrates the expressive power of poetry into her work to
inspire healing, creativity, and personal growth. She creates dynamic, experiential writing
opportunities for her students, guiding them to participate in Miami-Dade County’s prestigious
Piano Slam competition—where one of her students earned the top prize and several others
have ranked among the finalists.

Anjanette Delgado (Santurce, Puerto Rico) writes about sexile, heartbreak, and displacement. She is the Emmy award-winning author of two novels: The Heartbreak Pill (Atria, 2008) and The Clairvoyant of Calle Ocho (Penguin Random House, 2014), and  has written poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for the New York Times (Modern Love; Opinion), Vogue, NPR, HBO, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Tupelo Quarterly, Pleiades Mag, and the Boston Review, among others. Anjanette the editor of the groundbreaking anthology Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness (University of Florida Press, 2021), chosen by “Poets & Writers” as one of three notable anthologies that year, and a Gold Medal Winner for ensemble fiction at the Latino International Book Awards. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Florida International University and her latest book El sexilio, is a hybrid chapbook of protest poetry and non-fiction about the violence that ejects us and the influence of colonial and other oppressive structures on violence against the feminized. (LaCriba Editores, 2024). 

Oscar Fuentes, known as The Biscayne Poet, is a Miami-based multidisciplinary artist, curator, and author of 10 poetry and prose collections. Born in Manhattan to Honduran immigrant parents, his work explores themes of family, memory, and legacy. His typewriter poetry was recently featured on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Miami, and he serves as poet-in-residence at 1 Hotel South Beach. He is currently working on Poetry City, a new poetry collection inspired by Miami. In 2023, he received the inaugural Miami-Dade Mayoral Poetry Commendation.
www.thebiscaynepoet.com / Follow him: @thebiscaynepoet 

Yaddyra Peralta, a poet originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, immigrated to Miami with her family at the age of six. It was there that her passion for poetry began, sparked by an introduction to haiku from her first-grade Spanish teacher. Her essays and poetry have since been featured several anthologies including Eight Miami Poets (O, Miami, 2015), The Breakbeat Poets, Vol. 4: LatiNext (Haymarket Books, 2020), Grabbed: Poets & Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment & Healing (Beacon Press, 2020) and Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness (University Press of Florida, 2021), as well as in various publications including BOMB, The Florida Review, Ploughshares, and The Miami Herald. Yaddyra holds an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University and is O, Miami's Director of Civic Publishing.

Trey Rhone is a queer black writer and educator from Augusta, Georgia, but currently resides in Miami, Florida. He has received an MFA from Florida International University. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in Blue Mountain Review, Broadsided Press, BULL, Daily Drunk Magazine, Florida Review, Frozen Sea, MAYDAY, Olney Magazine, and Stirring Lit. If he isn't ranting about the latest music release, ask him to tell you a fun fact about his favorite animal, the possum.

Rani Ruado (he/they) is a poet who has won an award. He is also a baker, first-generation Filipino-American, teacher, Capricorn, songstress, and amateur grandma. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, he is a recent graduate of FIU’s Creative Writing MFA program. If you ever need a karaoke partner, he is always available. You can find him on Instagram as @ran_jun.

Melody Santiago Cummings is the Executive Director of O, with extensive experience in developing collaborative strategic partnerships and non-prescriptive program design, she spearheaded hundreds of mission-oriented events and special projects that have elevated O, Miami into the organization it is today. Recognized as an empathetic leader, Melody prioritizes team morale and joyfulness. Melody's accolades include being honored as a "Miami Leader" for the 2019-20 term by The Miami Foundation and recognized as a Knight Foundation 2022 Knight Arts Champion. As a creative strategist, she was recruited by Apple to become Head of Programming, where she orchestrated global artist-led experiences for Apple Music and Today at Apple from 2021-2023. Above all, Melody is a devoted mother, wife, and proud first-generation Miamian of Puerto Rican and Cuban ancestry, deeply rooted in her love for the 305.