Horacio Sierra is an educator, journalist, activist, and creative writer. His research on English and Spanish Renaissance literature has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the U.S. Department of Education, and the University of Texas. As a tenured English professor at Bowie State University, Maryland’s oldest HBCU, he has created courses such as Graphic Novels, Studies in Popular Music, Queer Cultural Studies, Shakespeare & Film, and U.S. Hispanic Literature. The University System of Maryland awarded him their Excellence in Teaching Award for his commitment to experiential education.

Sierra’s work as a theatre and literary critic has been published in The Miami Herald, Comparative Drama, and Theater Journal. His editorials on topics such as the importance of a humanities education have been published in The Washington Post, Forbes, The Hartford Courant, and The Baltimore Sun. His poems exploring the intersections of history, geography, and identity have been published in The William & Mary Review, Saw Palm, and Gulf Stream Magazine. As a Miami native with strong ties to his family’s Cuban and Spanish heritage, Sierra is President of the Cuban American Democrats, Director of the Sierra Family Scholarship, and has provided college application workshops for his alma mater, Miami Coral Park Senior High. He is also an Executive Board Member of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association and is Editor of the College English Association’s Mid-Atlantic Review. Sierra earned his BS from the University of Miami and his PhD from the University of Florida. He lives in Florida with his husband, Dallas Clay Sierra, and their two children.