About Maria Garcia Teutsch

Maria Garcia Teutsch, MA, MFA, is an award-winning poet and professor. In 2023 she wrote and directed two one act plays, The Revolution Will Have its Sky: a poem in one act, at Studio Apelbaum; and What She Saw in the Loteria Cards at Galerie Z22, both in Berlin, Germany. Her cinepoem, The Revolution Will Have its Sky was a part of the 2023 official selection of the Fotogenia Festival in Mexico City; The Nature and Culture International Poetry Film Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Birmingham International Art Film Festival, England. In 2024 the cinepoem was a finalist at the New Arts International Film Festival in London, England. The Revolution Trilogy is comprised of her award winning poetry collection, her one act play, and her cinepoem.

Her newest poetry collection, The Swallows of America was published by Dancing Girl Press in the Fall of 2021. The poetry collection, The Revolution Will Have its Sky, won the Minerva Rising chapbook competition, judged by the wondrous Heather McHugh. Maria is a poet, playwright, editor, and educator. She has published over 25 book/journals of poetry as editor-in-chief of the Homestead Review, published by Hartnell College in Salinas, and Ping-Pong journal of art and literature, published by the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur, California. She teaches poetry and creative writing at Hartnell College as a member of their faculty. She is the founder of Ping-Pong Free Press, and CEO of Poet Republik.

“In the real world
there are poems and
you can rest in
them for moments
of no known dur-
ation. Thank you,
Maria Garcia Teutsch,
for writing these
crystal-pure poems
about difficult subjects.”
-Alice Notley

“Maria Garcia Teutsch’s poems are understated protests that pack a wallop.
Child separated at the border pulled away from mother “like meat from a bone”; “America/your face is razor-/wired”. Blessings on the poet-citizens who hear the sobs “no one hears”. The Swallows of America is a reminder for all of us to take heed to vocalize atrocity and act on convictions that wrench the heart. Poetry is an emanation of the heart.” –Anne Waldman

“Love, sex, politics, and death are rendered vividly in The Revolution Will have its Sky, the poet’s lines miming in each poem some essence of personality. We recognize these people of intrigue from history and in our own mirrors. A stunning collection.” —Carol Frost

Ilya Kaminsky on Maria’s Poetics: “Maria Garcia Teutsch is a poet who looks for lyricism and sensual flavor in our daily moments, and makes poems that ride on the human nerve, like Frank O’Hara told us the poet must.”

The revolution will have its sky—where else might its banner wave, aloft, esteemed–and still be widely legible? In order for us to discern what otherwise the sight alone can’t catch, impulses appropriate letters, airs take shape, the wind turns signs to tatters, tatters to signs. The author of these poems keeps an eye not on a single great celestial value, but on the human disposition to scrips, emblems, notes, names, lists: The scores we keep.- Heather McHugh, Judge’s Citation, “The Revolution Will Have Its Sky”

Gleason Teaching Award for Excellence, Hartnell College

Presidents award for teaching innovation, Hartnell College

Minerva Rising Poetry Award Winner, The Revolution will Have its Sky, judge: Heather McHugh

Monterey County Champion of the Arts nominee, Monterey Arts Council, California

Professor: Hartnell College

Editor-in-Chief/Poetry Editor Ping-Pong Journal of Art and Literature

Editor-in-Chief/Poetry Editor Homestead Review Literary Journal

Henry Miller Memorial Library Emerita– 15 years of service. First as Secretary then as President/Chair of the Board.

MFA Poetry, New England College

MA English Appalachian State University

BA Creative Writing, UNC-Wilmington