Craig Santos Perez
Craig Santos Perez is a native Chamorro from Mongmong, Guam. In 1995, his family moved to California. He lived there for fifteen years before moving to Hawai‘i. Perez earned his BA in literature and creative writing in 2002 at the University of Redlands in California and his MFA in poetry at the University of San Francisco in 2006.
He is the co-editor of nine anthologies and the author of seven books of poetry and the academic monograph, Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization, which received the MLA Prize for Best Book in Studies of Native Culture and Literature. His works include:
- Call This Mutiny: [uncollected poems] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2024)
- From Unincorporated Territory [åmot] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2023), which was the winner of the 2023 National Book Award in Poetry;
- Habitat Threshold (Omnidawn Publishing, 2020);
- from unincorporated territory [lukao] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2017);
- from unincorporated territory [guma’] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2014); winner of the 2015 American Book Award;
- from unincorporated territory [saina] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2010), winner of the PEN Center USA 2011 Literary Prize for Poetry;
- from unincorporated territory [hacha] (Tinfish Press, 2008)
Perez’s poetry focuses on themes of Pacific life, immigration, ancestry, colonialism, and diaspora. In 2017, Perez became the first native Pacific Islander to receive a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship for Poetry. His other awards include the Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange Award, the Emily Chamberlain Cook Poetry, and the Jean Burden Poetry Award.
Photo credit: John Midgley
GVSU Appearances
Poetry Night with Craig Santos Perez
Thursday, October 15, 2026, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
Wealthy Theatre – 1130 Wealthy St SE
A book signing will follow the presentation.
Dr. Craig Santos Perez is an Indigenous Chamoru from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the editor of nine anthologies and author of seven books of poetry, most recently Call This Mutiny [Uncollected Poems], and the academic monograph, Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization, which received the MLA Prize for Best Book in Studies of Native Culture and Literature. His work has been honored with the National Book Award, the American Book Award, a PEN award, and the Poetry Society of America Prize. Perez is a poet, editor, essayist, critic, environmentalist, and political activist. An important voice in eco-poetics, he describes his work as a mourning and desire to protect the environment from further desecration and a longing and advocacy for a decolonized, sovereign, and indigenous future.
Occurring annually, GVSU Poetry Night has a tradition of bringing some of the most celebrated and distinguished poets to enlighten and entertain. One of the largest poetry reading series in the state thanks to the generosity of donors and the university, Poetry Night events are always free and open to the public.
