About

Roberto Carlos Garcia is a 2023 NJ State Council of the Arts Fellow. He is the author of five books, including four poetry collections—Melancolía (Cervena Barva Press, 2016); black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric (Willow Books, 2018); [Elegies] (FlowerSong Press, 2020); and the recently published What Can I Tell You: The Selected Poems of Roberto Carlos Garcia (Flowersong Press, 2022)—and one essay collection, Traveling Freely, forthcoming in 2024 from Northwestern University Press. Roberto is the founder of Get Fresh Books Publishing, a literary nonprofit.

He writes about the Afro-Latinx and Afro-Diasporic experience. His work has been published widely in places like Poetry Magazine, NACLA, Poets & Writers, The Root, The BreakBeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNEXT, Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3., and others.

Roberto is the founder of Get Fresh Books Publishing, a literary nonprofit.

Featured Work

What Can I Tell You? Selected Poems

2022
Photo of a painting of red poppies against a yellow background with title and poet name.

What Can I Tell You?

Charting the personal and the political, the lyrical and the prosaic, with an intense interrogation of anti-Blackness that centers Trans-Atlantic and Latinx Blackness in all its vastness, beauty, and pride, this necessary book compiles the best of Garcia's three poetry collections. These selected poems will introduce Garcia's work to a broader audience. Like the poem it takes its title from, What Can I Tell You conveys a poet wrestling with what it means to make poetry from the bread of life. At times formal and playful, and at others deadly serious, Garcia's full range of themes and obsessions is on full display within its pages.

Other Works

  • [Elegies]

    2020

  • black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric

    2018

  • Melancolia

    2016

Awards and Recognition

  • 2023 NJ State Council of the Arts Fellowship

Press and Media Mentions