Darlene Pagan

Darlene Pagán teaches creative writing and literature at Pacific University in Oregon, including Poetry, Nonfiction, Latinx Literature, YA Literature, and Research and Writing. Her publications include a poetry chapbook, Blue Ghosts (Finishing Line Press) and a full-length poetry collection, Setting the Fires (Airlie Press). Her first middle grade novel, Lucía and the Sombra Trees, will be published in June of 2027 with Little, Brown and Company, Books for Young Readers. Her poems have appeared in Field, Calyx, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Poet Lore, Hiram Poetry Review, and Hawaii Pacific Review, among others. Her essays have appeared in Memoir(and), Brevity, The Nebraska Review, and Literal Latté, including "In the House of Lovers," an award-winning essay about her parent's interracial marriage. When she's not with her family and four cats, she enjoys hiking in the wood, swimming in the rain, and writing in the early morning hours.