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Amanda Alcántara is a Caribbean writer, performer and journalist. She is the author of “Chula” (2019). Her creative writing and journalistic work has been featured in the anthology “Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA,” the poetry anthology "LatiNext" and several news publications. Alcántara's work focuses on highlighting Latin American and Caribbean music—she's produced podcasts for NPR's Latino USA and written articles for Remezcla on all things music. She is also a co-founder and previous editor of La Galería Magazine. In 2021, Alcántara began recording Spanish language audiobooks, starting with providing the voiceover for the Spanish translation of The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman. She recently moved to the Dominican Republic and launched the Spanish-language podcast Radio Místico, exploring all things myths and legends from a Caribbean perspective.
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Amanda Alcántara is a Dominican-American writer, performer, and journalist. She is the author of Chula (independently published in 2019). Her work centers on various themes including Caribbean culture, womanhood, biculturalism, borders, race and an exploration of the self.
Her writing has been published in the 2020 anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext published by Haymarket Books—a collection edited by Willie Perdomo that celebrates the embodied narratives of Latinidad— and in Latinas: An Anthology of Protests and Struggle in 21st Century USA published by Red Sugarcane Press in 2018. Alcántara also lent her voice for the Spanish translation of the audiobook of Amanda Gorman’s 2021 U.S. presidential inauguration poem The Hill We Climb, to be published by Penguin Random House Audio.
Alcántara includes theatrical performance in the readings of her poetry and creative writing, and has performed in stages like the Apollo Theatre, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, the United Palace and universities across the country including Harvard and Dartmouth. She has also performed in the cities of Paris, Santo Domingo, Havana, among others.
Her journalism work and opinion pieces have been featured on Refinery29, El Diario, Latino USA, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post’s The Lily, Remezcla, The Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, PIX 11 and others. She has also been featured on listicles of “Latinx to follow” on social media on Latina magazine and The Huffington Post, and was profiled by Cosmopolitan. In 2017, she read an open letter for a PSA series on Vice TV.
Recently, Alcántara was the Digital Media Editor of Latino USA, a national radio show and podcast then-released on NPR. One of her stories on the #MeToo movement was highlighted in Times Magazine end of year 50 podcasts recommendation, saying, one of the podcast’s “most effective recent episodes explored one reporter’s personal struggle to reconcile her love of Junot Diaz’s work.” The Los Angeles Times also recommended the podcast episode saying, “The headlines don’t quite do the [#MeToo scandal] story justice — what does is this story by Latino USA.”
In 2019, Alcántara independently published Chula, an imaginative bilingual collection of intimate poems, short stories, memories and vignettes about the life of a Dominicana before and after moving to the United States. Though independently published, the two-night release event for the collection was sold-out, and the book was number #2 most sold of the year at Word Up Books in Washington Heights.
Chula has also been praised by People en Español, Remezcla, Hip Latina, and countless blogs and Instagram pages including Mixta and Latinx Reads. National Book Award winner and author of The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo praised the book, saying, “Alcántara’s Chula sings with ferocity and wit.”
In 2014, Alcántara co-founded La Galería Magazine, a magazine celebrating the Dominican Diaspora. As the magazine’s Editor in Chief she edited hundreds of articles, and facilitated dialogues on race, gender and immigration. Alcántara’s work at the time centered on activism and reimagining a Dominicanness that is diverse and inclusive. The magazine concluded its work in 2019, following the publication of a print edition highlighting the works of dozens of Dominican creatives, from poets, activists and opinion writers to photographers, designers and visual artists.
Alcántara has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Political Science with a minor in French from Rutgers University, and a Master’s in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University. Alcántara is a Libra who loves exploring nature and being close to the sea. She currently owns a bookstore in the Dominican Republic named Librería Cosmos.
Amanda Alcántara is a Dominican-American writer, performer, and journalist. She is the author of Chula (independently published in 2019). Her work centers on various themes including Caribbean culture, womanhood, biculturalism, borders, race and an exploration of the self.
Her writing has been published in the 2020 anthology The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext published by Haymarket Books—a collection edited by Willie Perdomo that celebrates the embodied narratives of Latinidad— and in Latinas: An Anthology of Protests and Struggle in 21st Century USA published by Red Sugarcane Press in 2018. Alcántara also lent her voice for the Spanish translation of the audiobook of Amanda Gorman’s 2021 U.S. presidential inauguration poem The Hill We Climb, to be published by Penguin Random House Audio.
Alcántara includes theatrical performance in the readings of her poetry and creative writing, and has performed in stages like the Apollo Theatre, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, the United Palace and universities across the country including Harvard and Dartmouth. She has also performed in the cities of Paris, Santo Domingo, Havana, among others.
Her journalism work and opinion pieces have been featured on Refinery29, El Diario, Latino USA, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post’s The Lily, Remezcla, The Huffington Post, Democracy Now!, PIX 11 and others. She has also been featured on listicles of “Latinx to follow” on social media on Latina magazine and The Huffington Post, and was profiled by Cosmopolitan. In 2017, she read an open letter for a PSA series on Vice TV.
Recently, Alcántara was the Digital Media Editor of Latino USA, a national radio show and podcast then-released on NPR. One of her stories on the #MeToo movement was highlighted in Times Magazine end of year 50 podcasts recommendation, saying, one of the podcast’s “most effective recent episodes explored one reporter’s personal struggle to reconcile her love of Junot Diaz’s work.” The Los Angeles Times also recommended the podcast episode saying, “The headlines don’t quite do the [#MeToo scandal] story justice — what does is this story by Latino USA.”
In 2019, Alcántara independently published Chula, an imaginative bilingual collection of intimate poems, short stories, memories and vignettes about the life of a Dominicana before and after moving to the United States. Though independently published, the two-night release event for the collection was sold-out, and the book was number #2 most sold of the year at Word Up Books in Washington Heights.
Chula has also been praised by People en Español, Remezcla, Hip Latina, and countless blogs and Instagram pages including Mixta and Latinx Reads. National Book Award winner and author of The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo praised the book, saying, “Alcántara’s Chula sings with ferocity and wit.”
In 2014, Alcántara co-founded La Galería Magazine, a magazine celebrating the Dominican Diaspora. As the magazine’s Editor in Chief she edited hundreds of articles, and facilitated dialogues on race, gender and immigration. Alcántara’s work at the time centered on activism and reimagining a Dominicanness that is diverse and inclusive. The magazine concluded its work in 2019, following the publication of a print edition highlighting the works of dozens of Dominican creatives, from poets, activists and opinion writers to photographers, designers and visual artists.
Alcántara has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Political Science with a minor in French from Rutgers University, and a Master’s in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University. Alcántara is a Libra who loves exploring nature and being close to the sea. She currently owns a bookstore in the Dominican Republic named Librería Cosmos.
