About

Short Bio

Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, and inclusion strategist from New York City. He is the author of Fractures, winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, Hijito, winner of the Broken River Prize and a #1 SPD bestseller, and the memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood, released by Penguin Random House. A star of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TV One’s Verses and Flow, and Spike Lee’s #1 box office movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, Carlos is one of the highest booked acts in the history of the college market and among the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world. Carlos’ honors include the Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry, Atlanta Review International Poetry Prize, Foreword INDIES Gold Medal, and the International Book Award. A genre-transcending multi-hyphenate, he partnered with John Legend on Senior Orientation, a program to counteract bullying and champion inclusive masculinity among high school students. Carlos is a proud father of two.

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Long Bio

Carlos Andrés Gómez is a Colombian American poet, speaker, actor, and educator from New York City. He is the author of the full-length poetry collection Fractures, selected by Pulitzer Prize winner and 19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the 2020 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry. Fractures was also named winner of the 2021 Midwest Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry, winner of the 2021 Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal in Poetry, winner of the 2022 Independent Author Network (IAN) Book of the Year Award for Poetry, winner of the 2023 Rubery International Book Award for Poetry, and winner of the 2024 North American Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry, as well as a finalist for the 2021 Eric Hoffer Book Award, finalist for the 2021 National Indie Excellence Award, finalist for the 2021 Best Book Award, finalist for the 2023 Feathered Quill Book Award, longlist finalist for the 2020 Julie Suk Award for Best Poetry Book, runner-up for the 2023 Royal Dragonfly Book Award for Poetry, and it was shortlisted for the UK’s 2021 International Poetry Book Award. Carlos is also the author of the chapbook Hijito, selected by Eduardo C. Corral as the winner of the 2018 Broken River Prize, as well as Gold Medal winner in the 2019 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, winner of the 2020 IndieReader Discovery Award for Poetry, winner of the 2020 International Book Award for Poetry, finalist for the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award for Poetry, and a #1 SPD bestseller; and the coming-of-age memoir Man Up: Reimagining Modern Manhood, a finalist for the UK’s 2022 Page Turner International Book Award that was released by Penguin Random House.

Named 2021 Georgia Author of the Year by the Georgia Writers Association, 2022 TACHE Poet Laureate by the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education, 2016 Best Diversity Artist by Campus Activities Magazine, Artist of the Year at the 2009 Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, and a 2024 NACE Speaker of the Year nominee, Carlos costarred in Spike Lee’s #1 box office movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen. He appeared in the sixth season of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and in the third season of TV One’s Verses and Flow. Carlos is widely known for his viral poems, “What Latino Looks Like,” “Where are you really from?” and others, which have garnered more than 12 million views online. He partnered with John Legend and KYLE on Senior Orientation, a program to counteract bullying and champion inclusive masculinity among high school students. In August of 2021, Carlos released his debut studio album, Opus, a groundbreaking spoken word album in collaboration with musician/producer, Brent Shuttleworth, and GRAMMY^® Award–winning record producer, Joe West. The trio released an encore collaboration, their sophomore album Volta, in September of 2022. Carlos has headlined festivals all over the world, including Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, Cambodia, Ireland, Spain, Canada, England, and as Guest of Honor at the Berlin International Literature Festival in Germany.

Star and co-writer of the Emmy^® Award-winning “Respect Yourself” television spots by At Large Films, Carlos has been featured on a wide range of media outlets and platforms, including NPR, The New York Times, TEDx, NBC News, PBS NewsHour’s Brief But Spectacular, People en Español, Forbes, BuzzFeed, Button Poetry, VIBE magazine, BET, Elle magazine, Teen Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, Upworthy, Mashable, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Black Enterprise, Cosmopolitan Middle East, Hindustan Times, South China Morning Post, The Sunday Times Sri Lanka, Gulf News, Khmer Times, The Irish Times, Time Out Abu Dhabi, The National, Now This, Power of Positivity, We are mitú, Pantsuit Nation, HuffPost Latino Voices, Leyendas by GMC, The On Being Project’s Poetry Unbound, American Public Media & The Poetry Foundation’s The Slowdown, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, HBO Max’s Imagen Award-nominated documentary Are you listening?, PBS’ The NEXT Movement, WE Day UN at the Barclays Center, Kristian Mercado Figueroa’s Webby Award-nominated short film Mi Gente, The Representation Project’s #BoysWillBeBoys Healthy Masculinities Campaign, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s “Saving our Cells,” Central Park SummerStage, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Macy’s Passport Show, MTV Studios with Talib Kweli, MARTA Artbound, the Voto Latino Power Summit, PEN America, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Life is Beautiful Music & Arts Festival, the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Georgia Poetry in the Parks, Heavy Hitters Festival, Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theater, The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Brooklyn Academy of Music, National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Omega Institute’s Women & Power Conference, Expo 2020 Dubai, on Broadway with Savion Glover, and, during President Obama’s tenure, drew a standing ovation at the White House.

Carlos has won more than 100 prizes, honors, and awards as an author, poet, actor, playwright, and filmmaker, including winning the 2024 Yeats International Poetry Prize, 2019 Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry, 2015 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, 2018 Sequestrum Editor’s Award in Poetry, 2024 Button Poetry Short Form Contest, 2018 Lazuli Literary Award, 2019 Fischer National Poetry Prize, and the 2018 Atlanta Review International Poetry Prize. Gómez has been a Best of the Net finalist and four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, was runner-up for the 2018 Sandy Crimmins National Prize for Poetry and 2017 Stephen Dunn Prize in Poetry, was named a finalist for the 2018 Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize, 2018 Anthony Cronin International Poetry Award, 2018 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Prize, 2018 Frontier Poetry Industry Prize, 2019 Aryamati Poetry Prize for Peace and Social Change, 2024 Blackberry Peach Written & Spoken Word Contest, 2024 Fischer National Poetry Prize, 2018 Lascaux Prize in Poetry, 2017 James Hearst Poetry Prize, 2018 New Millennium Flash Fiction Prize, 2024 Charles Simic Memorial Prize, and the 2023 Tom Howard Poetry Prize (among others), and was shortlisted for the 2024 Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. Carlos is the recipient of fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA), Playa Flamingo Writing Residency, and the Jerome Foundation. His writing has been published, or is forthcoming, in The Nation, New England Review, The Yale Review, BuzzFeed Reader, The Sunday Times, Beloit Poetry Journal, Smartish Pace, Timeout New York, The Guardian, North American Review, Rattle, The Rumpus, wildness, Muzzle, The Journal, The Best of Philadelphia Stories, Crab Creek Review, The Huffington Post, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Southword Literary Journal, Cultural Weekly, Atlanta Review, Sequestrum Literary Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Ocotillo Review, Prism Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, Paterson Literary Review, Philadelphia Stories, Radius, decomP, Burningword Literary Journal, The Big Windows Review, Menacing Hedge, The Acentos Review, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, AZURE: A Journal of Literary Thought, Psaltery & Lyre, Levee Magazine, Hole In The Head Review, The Quarry, Brooklyn Poets, WB Yeats Society of NY, The Lascaux Review, Learn Then Burn: A Modern Poetry Anthology for the Classroom (Write Bloody Publishing, 2010), The Barbershop Chronicles (Penmanship Books, 2008), High Desert Voices (The Wordsmith Press, 2005), We Will Be Shelter: Poems for Survival (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014), Fight Evil With Poetry (Sideshow Media Group, 2018), You Are Never Where You Are: A Collection of Poetry (University of Washington Press, 2010), Me No Habla With Acento: Contemporary Latino Poetry (Rebel Satori Press, 2011), Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience (Seven Stories Press, 2019), Airmail: Women of Letters (Viking Australia, 2015), The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext (Haymarket Books, 2020), CHORUS: A Literary Mixtape (MTV Books/Simon & Schuster, 2012), Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (W.W. Norton & Co., 2022), and elsewhere.

Carlos graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in history and earned his M.F.A. from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. A former social worker and public school teacher, Carlos co-founded The Excelano Project (one of the nation’s premier performance poetry groups) at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. A two-time International Poetry Slam Champion (2006 Toronto International Poetry Slam Champion, 2010 Buffalo Niagara International Poetry Slam Champion), he has delivered keynotes and done engagements at more than 1,500 colleges, universities, independent schools, and companies, facilitated countless workshops and trainings, and delivered numerous graduation speeches and commencement addresses. Carlos has shared the stage with a diverse range of celebrated artists and icons, including John Legend, Gloria Steinem, Dr. Cornel West, Eve Ensler, MC Lyte, Amiri Baraka, Carole King, Ishmael Reed, Sheryl Sandberg, John Leguizamo, Wyclef Jean, Hozier, KYLE, Mary Mary, Javier Colón, Rosie Perez, Pete Rock, Ntozake Shange, Toots and The Maytals, Immortal Technique, Junaid Jamshed, Suzanne Vega, Lemn Sissay, Saul Williams, Reggie Watts, and Mos Def. Over the past 23 years, Carlos has headlined shows in 28 countries across six continents, as well as 47 U.S. states, and counting…he continues to tour the globe.

What are people saying about Carlos as a speaker/performer? Sign in to Twitter, visit Carlos’ page & click on “Likes”

ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT

For Carlos’ performance reel, click HERE

To watch Carlos’ TEDx talk, “The Gift of Fear,” click HERE

“Powerful, truthful, and sublime.”
–Dr. Cornel West

“Carlos is killing it—he’s such a powerful speaker.”
–John Legend

“…a truth-telling visionary.”
–Sarah Higginbotham, Brass Magazine (United States)

“Carlos was by far the most engaging and inspiring poet I have ever seen.”
–Drew Donica, Lawrence University (United States)

“Powerful and tear-jerking…a mind-blowing, perspective-changing experience.”
–Shannon Busta, Cord Weekly (Canada)

“***** (5/5 stars) — Gómez lays himself bare…a quarter of the audience shed tears yet the show was uplifting.”
–Bernie Greenwood, Hairline Magazine (United Kingdom)

“The voice of a new generation in poetry…empowering and captivating for listeners of all varieties.”
–Kirsten Sylvain, The Free Press (United States)

“Carlos Andrés Gómez took the stage at the Emirates Festival of Literature and moved the audience to tears with his words.”
–The Emirates Literature Foundation (The United Arab Emirates)

“Magic happened in that auditorium. Students were actively involved and sharing their stories. I was weeping the entire time. Nothing like this could ever be replicated.”
–Alia Stewart, Director of Student Engagement, Blackburn College (United States)

“I have been a professor here for 18 years, and watching Carlos Andrés Gómez tonight was my favorite performance I have seen in that time.”
–Professor Leah Nielsen, Department of English, Westfield State University (United States)

“The event was incredible. Every student who came was extremely impressed with Carlos…I had seniors coming up to me telling me that Carlos was the best speaker they had seen in four years.”
–Elizabeth Stanfield, Co-Chair, SEAT, University of Tennessee (United States)

“Carlos is without a doubt one of the best performers we have had on the Berry campus. It is so nice working with someone who is so helpful, so grateful, and an all-around joy to work with. And you can quote me on that.”
–Taylor Burfeindt, Krannert Center Activities Board, Berry College (United States)

“That was the best convocation we have ever had—I left with a full heart!”
–Makenzie Tucker, Diversity Awareness Chair, Tennessee Wesleyan University (United States)

“A star of the spoken word.”
–Aarti Saundalkar, What’s On Dubai (United Arab Emirates)

“Great poem & performance…Love what [he] say[s] and how [he] say[s] it.”
–Sir Ken Robinson

“Carlos Andrés Gómez—a man so stunningly open, a poet so thrillingly fierce—that my students, normally so intellectual and analytical, couldn’t resist the chance to share their most emotionally intimate stories of learning the world and claiming their voices in it. And they haven’t stopped since.”
–Cindylisa Muñiz, Faculty, Trinity School (United States)

“Carlos Andrés Gómez is one of the most compelling voices of our generation…
[He] captivates his listener with a profound use of cadence and imagery… Raw, entertaining, and empowering.”
–Imani Woomera, Slam Africa (Kenya)

“Carlos is amazing. Pretty much everything he says, whether a ‘poem’ or not, is pure poetry. His grace and power and humor demand not only that people listen, but also that they act for change—in themselves and the world around them. And especially when it comes to the narrow norms that constrain men, hurt women, and limit us all, he can help deliver exactly the change we need. Carlos makes me laugh, cry, and hope.”
–Mallika Dutt, Founder & Former President & CEO of Breakthrough {a global organization building a culture of human rights} (India)

“Gómez’s performance is part classic artiste and part lyrical prophet. Think Keats, meets Bob Marley meets Tupac Shakur.”
–Searlina Bodden, Caymanian Compass (Cayman Islands)