Craig Santos Perez
Craig Santos Perez is a native Chamorro from Mongmong, Guam. In 1995, his family moved to California. He lived there for fifteen years before moving to Hawai‘i. Perez earned his BA in literature and creative writing in 2002 at the University of Redlands in California and his MFA in poetry at the University of San Francisco in 2006.
Perez has authored six books of poetry: From Unincorporated Territory [åmot] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2023), which was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award in Poetry; Habitat Threshold (Omnidawn Publishing, 2020); from unincorporated territory [lukao] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2017); from unincorporated territory [guma’] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2014); winner of the 2015 American Book Award; from unincorporated territory [saina] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2010), winner of the PEN Center USA 2011 Literary Prize for Poetry; and from unincorporated territory [hacha] (Tinfish Press, 2008).
Perez’s poetry focuses on themes of Pacific life, immigration, ancestry, colonialism, and diaspora. In 2017, Perez became the first native Pacific Islander to receive a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship for Poetry. His other awards include the Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange Award, the Emily Chamberlain Cook Poetry, and the Jean Burden Poetry Award.
In 2010, as part of Resolution No. 315-30, the Guam Legislature recognized Perez as an “accomplished poet who has been a phenomenal ambassador for our island, eloquently conveying through his words, the beauty and love that is the Chamorro culture.” In 2011, he cofounded Ala Press, an independent publisher with a focus on Pacific literature.
Perez is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He lives in Mānoa.
