About the Artist
María Fernanda (she/hers) writes poetry and crafts literary experiences.
Her literary works appear in The Acentos Review, The Rumpus, The Healing Verse Poetry Line, and elsewhere.
Awarded the Norma Elia Cantú Award in Creative Writing and the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry, María Fernanda is a Callaloo fellow. She performed at MoMaPS1, The National African American Museum of History and Culture, Phoenix Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, and more.
In 2025, María Fernanda was invited and presented poetry to audiences in Hamburg, Moscow, Nikiti, and cities across the United States. In 2026, she conducted two months of independent literary research in Granada, after which she presented to audiences in the United States. Her literary experiences appear here.
Spotlight: Deanwood, Anacostia, Trinidad, Mount Pleasant, and Georgetown Heights are neighborhoods that María Fernanda has honored through her independent programs.
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María Fernanda (she/hers) writes exploring the intimacy of sisterhood, the anchor of intergenerational coexistence, and grief.
María Fernanda’s latest work appears in The Hill Rag, The Rumpus, Luna Luna Magazine, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4, and Cheryl Clarke's born in a bed of good lessons: poems inspired by the works of Lucille Clifton.
She is a published contributor of The Library of Congress, an inaugural Academy of American Poets Poetry Coalition Fellow, and a Two-Time Best of the Net Nominee.
Awarded the Norma Elia Cantú Award in Creative Writing, María Fernanda is a recipient of literary appointments from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Arizona Commission on the Arts, and elsewhere.
María Fernanda served as a Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Judge for New York City Writing, The Black Artists and Designers Association Advisor at Arizona State University, and a guest speaker for Lincoln Center Education as an Artist in the Industry.
She often reads poetry in service of locally-rooted national initiatives and conversations, including The Bronx is Reading’s The Bronx Book Festival, #PoetsforPuertoRico, The Rainbow Book Fair, #MeTooMovement Freelancers Hub, DC’s Youth Leadership Foundation, and others.
MacArthur Genius Award grantee Terrance Hayes selected her work as a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Amistad Award for College Writers in Poetry.
María Fernanda performs her poetry across the United States, including The National Gallery of Art, The National Museum of African American History and Culture, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,, The New York City Poetry Festival, The Brooklyn Museum, Arizona’s Phoenix Art Museum, MoMa PS1, Texas' Denton Black Film Festival, and more.
In February 2025, she is the first poet to present at Brookings Institution, a global think tank that conducts in-depth, nonpartisan research to improve policy and governance at local, national, and global levels.
—Experiences by María Fernanda
She presented a poetry experience in collaboration with the Freedom and Resistance Exhibition inspired by The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience in Washington, DC (details here), as well as presented on her independent research conducted in Spain in 2026.
Her presentation, “Baldwin’s Octave: Baldwin at the Intersection of Tenderness and Music,” was selected to be part of the International Conference on James Baldwin at the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen in Nice and Saint-Paul de Vence Her work was selected by Anaphora Arts for a fellowship.
She is the founder and executive producer of the independent interview series a poetry garden, where Black poets and gardeners discuss their creative and historical connections to gardens. María Fernanda is the founder of five other series:
Where We At! at the National Gallery of Art
The Hour Open Mic at Politics and Prose
Let’s Write Poetry Saturdays (multiple locations)
honoring nikki giovanni in the district of columbia (multiple locations)
Poetry and Presence Lecture series at the American Poetry Museum
María Fernanda on Language at the National Gallery of Art
Serving as The Academy of American Poets Poetry Coalition Fellow, she organized Of Restless Gardens, a digital event was inspired by Linda Hogan's "Map" and part of the Academy of American Poets’ Poetry and Environmental Justice programming.
She spoke on her entrepreneurship at New York University to a lecture hall of college students visiting from across the New York City metropolitan area as part of the BLOC conference.
As part of 2024 Best of D.C., The Washington City Paper recognized the DCPL Mount Pleasant location as a second runner up in Best Library Branch of 2024 where María Fernanda programmed four poetry programs as part of their offerings, resulting in nearly 60% of their overall poetry programming.
In contribution to various artistic scenes across the District of Columbia, she serves as.
a program partner at the National Gallery of Art — Gallery Place/Chinatown
a series creator and instructor at Politics & Prose — Union Market/NY Ave.
a program partner at the Folger Shakespeare Library — Capitol Hill
a program partner at the American Poetry Museum — Brookland
a program partner at Creative Grounds DC — North Capitol/B./E.
a civic impact partner at Arena Stage — Southwest Waterfront
the lead poetry specialist at DC Scores — by ward, all eight (8)
a literary arts instructor at The Writer’s Center — Bethesda, MD
Hear from audience members, workshop participants, and more!
Popular Services
by María Fernanda
Performances
Award-winning poet María Fernanda performs with a love for multilingualism. Her practice experiments with genealogy charts (inspired by poet Sarah Ghazal Ali) and etymology charts based on María Fernanda’s independent research at Planet Word. Each chart placeholder for a name or word is replaced by lyric. In person, she presents her pieces on broadsides.
María Fernanda performed her original poetry on the U.S. National Mall and Memorial Parks at the DMV Made Festival.
Literary Conversations & Facilitation
Award-winning poet María Fernanda leads literary workshops in the form of collective literary conversations and experiences. She conceives and develops each with the intention of supporting writers in their literary career. Participants create new work within her personalized framework, as well as consider unique ways to approach writing.
María Fernanda collaborated with Black Girls in Art Spaces and The National Museum of Women in the Arts to present María Fernanda’s A Black Girl’s Poetry Workshop .
Programming
Award-winning poet María Fernanda specializes as a creative producer for the performing arts. She produces venue-wide live productions (3k+ attendees), commissions new work, develops residencies for both individuals and groups (70+), and possesses extensive artist contract management experience.
María Fernanda collaborated with home and lifestyle boutique Salt & Sundry to facilitate a restorative poetry event.
Check out this write up about María Fernanda’s work with youth artists whom she creates professional opportunities for them to share their poetry with the public.
