Mariana Mcdonald

Mariana Mcdonald is a poet, writer, activist, and scientist. Her work has appeared widely, including poetry in Cutthroat, Sargasso, The New Verse News, Crab Orchard Review, Lunch Ticket, Boundless 2025, Antología de la Poesía Viequense, Ceasefire Now!, Poesía en Vuelo, and Anthology of Southern Poets; fiction in Intima, About Place Journal, So to Speak, Nunum, and Libretto; and essays in InMotion, Stansbury Forum, and Longridge Review. She co-authored with Margaret Randall Dominga Rescues the Flag, about Afro-Boricua heroine Dominga de la Cruz, and was lead editor for Oscar López Rivera’s memoir Cartas a Karina. At CDC she led work on health disparities, women’s health, racial/ethnic health, and health impacts of climate change. She was named a Hambidge Arts Center fellow in 2012 and a Black Earth Institute Scholar/Fellow in 2022. A longtime southerner with lifelong ties to Puerto Rico, she lives in Atlanta.