Join the Central American Studies Working Group for its end-of-year event and reception. Organized by the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and the Central American Studies Working Group, and co-sponsored by the Latin American Institute, the evening will feature poetry readings by Central American poets Chelsea Guevara and Willy Palomo, along with light refreshments. Both poets will be performing work from their recently published poetry collections (Cipota and Mercury in Reggaeton) and will engage in a moderated conversation/Q&A with the audience.
Chelsea Guevara is a U.S.-Salvadoran poet from Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2024, she became the Womxn of the World Poetry Slam Champion, becoming the first Salvadoran and the first Utahn to earn an international individual slam title. Published with Button Poetry in September 2025, Chelsea’s first book, Cipota, examines the grief and joy in storytelling, the displacements and anchors of transnational communities, and the malleability of home and identity. A graduate of the University of Arizona’s Latin American Studies Master's program, she utilizes her academic research to inform her creative work centering culture, history, and memory. You can find her work on the Button Poetry, Ghost Poetry, and Mapping Literary Utah platforms.
Willy Palomo (he/they/she) is the author of Mercury in Reggaetón, winner of the Light Scatter Prize, and Wake the Others (Editorial Kalina/Glass Spider Publishing, 2023), a winner of a Foreword Prize in Poetry and an International Latino Book Award honorable mention in Bilingual Poetry. In November 2024, his Spanish-to-English translation of Tres Tercas Trincheras by Marielos Olivo was published in Europe by FormArti. A veteran of the Salt Lake City poetry slam scene, his fiction, essays, poetry, translations, and songs can be found across print and web pages, including the Best New Poets 2018, Latino Rebels, The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, and more. He has performed at or keynoted in 160+ public engagements since 2011, including the SUU Pride Film Festival, el Festival Internacional de Poesia Amada Libertad in El Salvador, the World Poetry Slam in Cuidad Juárez, and many more. He has taught classes on literature, rap, and creative writing in universities, juvenile detention centers, high schools, and community centers. He is the son of two refugees from El Salvador.