Hailing from Honolulu, Hawai'i, Kaci X. Tavares is a poet, freelance editor, and English teacher. Currently based in Washington state, she writes bilingual poetry that investigates her multicultural identity and how it affects her relationships with her languages: English, 中文, and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. She passionately champions literature that adds diversity to the Anglosphere’s literary canon, such as her project Between the Boxes—a literary space that seeks to legitimize those who live in-between languages, cultures, and nations. Kaci's most recent poetry was published in the UEA MA Poetry Anthology 2020.

 

With degrees in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia (2021) and English and English Education from Boston University (2019), Kaci is an advocate for both authors and students of color. Recently, she worked as an editorial assistant with the University of East Anglia's Publishing Project's Boiler House Press, Strangers Press, and Egg Box Publishing imprints. Previously, she taught English Language Arts at Boston Latin School; pioneered an internship at The Hatchery Press, a co-working space for creative writers in Los Angeles, CA; and, volunteered with 826 Boston to help underserved youth publish their creative writing. Today, she is a proud Writing 360 mentor with the literary non-profit Girls Write Now and interns with Copper Canyon Press, an independent nonprofit publisher of poetry.

 

Her dream is to walk into a school and see a faculty and literary curriculum that represents the diversity of its student body. She hopes to walk into a publishing house and see a staff, from its editors to its marketers to its interns, that is representative of its authorship and readership.