Cynthia Clifford

Cynthia is a Mexican-American poet from Southern California's Inland Empire. She holds an MFA from Columbia University, where she was awarded the Linda Corrente Fellowship and taught creative writing as an adjunct assistant professor.

Based in Brooklyn, her poems have appeared in Witness Magazine and other journals, with new work forthcoming in The Brooklyn Rail. She was awarded a 2026 Poetry Society of America Summer Fellowship and won the Poetry Society of America's 2026 Storefront Prize.

At Woodward, she will be working on editing her debut poetry manuscript.