Mona Lisa Saloy

Poet

New Orleans, LA
Louisiana US
Email: 
monalisa@monalisasaloy.com
Website: 
www.monalisasaloy.com

Author's Bio

Mona Lisa Saloy, Ph.D. Louisiana Poet Laureate 2021-2023, is author, folklorist, Louisiana Folklife Commissioner, educator, and scholar of Creole culture in articles, documentaries, and poems about Black New Orleans before and after Katrina, is currently Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor of English, Dillard University. Books: Red Beans & Ricely Yours (has a banned poem “The N Word”), won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award. Second Line Home, on New Orleans Black Creole culture. Recent pubs: The Chicago Quarterly Review, Vol 33; “Introduction” to Black Fire!!! This Time II; Southern Voices: fifty contemporary poets, (Tom Mack & Andrew Geyer eds.) Literary Press, Lamar University, Fall 2024.  LMNL Poetry Anthology, fall 2024. Black Creole Chronicles: Poems (UNO Press 2023), choice for ONE BOOK ONE NEW ORLEANS 2024, & Book of the Month, The Whitney Plantation Museum. Saloy was named Louisianian of the Year in Literature: 2024 in Louisiana Life Magazine. Mentioned in “Read your way through New Orleans,” by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, NYT Book Review, Oct. 2024

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/books.... Most recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning! https://youtu.be/Nyn664lPes0?si=REOqvQMn.... With former LA Poet Laureate John Warner Smith, Saloy edits Hurricanes Katrina & Rita at 20, an anthology of Poetry with Art, BLACK BAYOU PRESS, 2025.

 Mona Lisa Saloy writes for those who don’t or can’t tell Black Creole cultural stories. www.monalisasaloy.com

Instagram: @saloy1

Education: 
Louisiana State University MFA
San Francisco State University MA

Publications & Prizes

Books:
Black Creole Chronicles (University of New Orleans Press, 2023)
,
Red Beans & Ricely Yours: Poems (Truman State University Press, 2015)
,
Second Line Home, New Orleans Poems (Truman State University Press, 2014)
Prizes won: 
  • Pass it On Grant, Chef Drew at DU, Ray Charles Program, $2000, Louisiana Folklife Commission, 2026
  • New Orleans Local Hero Award, Transformative Educator Award, National Association for Multicultural Education, 21 November 2025
  • LA Creole Founders Award for outstanding contributions to Creole Culture as Teacher, Poet, Writers, Folklorist, and Culturalist, 18 October 2025
  • Louisianian of the Year 2004

2022-2023 Louisiana Poet Laureate

PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award in Poetry (2006)

T.S. Eliot Prize in Poetry (2005)

Watch

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
African American
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
New Orleans, LA
Louisiana
Raised in: 
New Orleans, LA
Louisiana
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Mar 02, 2026