Bio

Darrel Alejandro Holnes is an Afro-Panamanian American writer, director, filmmaker, and scholar. He serves as Executive Director of the Caribbean Research Center at Medgar Evers College (CUNY), where he leads interdisciplinary initiatives amplifying Caribbean intellectual and cultural production. He is Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Playwriting at Medgar Evers College, with faculty appointments at the CUNY Graduate Center and New York University. Holnes is the author of Stepmotherland, winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and the International Latino Book Award in Poetry, and Migrant Psalms, winner of the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and competitive research funding, including support from the National Science Foundation. His work has been supported by MacDowell and other national residencies. As a playwright, his works have been produced or developed by The Civilians, 59E59 Theaters, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Center Theatre Group, and National Black Theatre. His play Black Feminist Video Game received an inaugural Anthem Award. He is also a filmmaker; his short film Marimacha screened internationally at over two dozen festivals and received multiple awards. Across genres, his work integrates performance, ethnography, archival research, and diasporic history. He is founder of the Candela Playwrights Summer Fellowship, an international program supporting emerging writers across the Caribbean and its diasporas.