BIO: CARLA RACHEL SAMETH, WRITER
About Carla
Writer. Teacher. Mother. As a writer, Carla hopes to help readers feel less alone and more resilient. As a teacher, she strives to help others tell their stories and hone their craft while experimenting with new forms. The journey of motherhood informs much of her writing.
Carla is the 2022-2024 co-Poet Laureate for Altadena, CA for 2022-2024 and was selected as a 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Her award-winning memoir, One Day on the Gold Line, was initially published July 2019 and is a 2021 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite in the category of Memoir. The book was reissued December 2022 by Golden Foothills Press. Her essay, “If This Is So, Why Am I” (which is included in her memoir) was selected as a notable in Best American Essays 2019. “Mother’s Day Triptych” and “This Is What I Want You to Know” were selected in Best American Essays 2020 and 2021, respectively. Her chapbook, What Is Left, was published December 2021 by dancing girl press. Her debut full-length poetry collection, Secondary Inspections, was published in 2024 by Nymeria Publishing.
Carla teaches with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and has taught creative writing with the Los Angeles Writing Project (LAWP) at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA). She was selected to be a 2019-2023 “Pride Poet” participating in the City of West Hollywood’s One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival. Carla is a member of the Pasadena Rose Poets who present “poetry within reach and in unexpected places.” She is a mentor and has taught incarcerated youth through WriteGirl.
Carla was selected as a Carrizozo Artist-in-Residence for 2022 and 2024.
She received a scholarship from and attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts, Post Graduate Writers’ Conference 2017-2021. Carla was selected for a PEN in the Community Teaching Artist Residency in the fall of 2016. She became a Los Angeles Writing Project fellow when she participated in the 2016 Summer Invitational Writing Institute at CSULA. The Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA Program awarded her a merit scholarship in 2014.
Carla holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Latin America) from Queens University of Charlotte and a bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She also studied economics and literature at the Universidad Autónoma de México City.
Carla’s work has been published in several anthologies and has appeared in print and online in publications that include: The Rumpus; ePen (the online publication of PEN Center USA); Brain, Child; Brevity Blog; Arlington Literary Journal; University of Alabama Literary Journal; The Nervous Breakdown; Anti-Heroin Chic; Collateral Journal; Full Grown People; Narratively; Mutha Magazine; Tikkun; Pasadena Weekly; AOL/Patch (the regular column “Single Moms of South Pasadena”); Angels Flight Literary West; and La Bloga. Her story “Graduation Day at Addiction High,” which originally appeared in Narratively, was also selected for Longread’s “Five Stories on Addiction.” The essay “When Sammy Boy and Mrs. Kumata Wore Paisley” (included in her memoir) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has been nominated for “Best of the Net.”
Carla previously helped others tell their stories through her communications business, iMinds PR. She was the co-founder of the Pasadena Writing Project and taught writing workshops. She played an instrumental role in building a career and education outreach program for Latinas at Women at Work. Carla also worked with the Seattle Indian Health Board where she started a program to combat family violence and sexual assault and created a model program for addressing adolescent healthcare, teen pregnancy, and teen parenting.
Carla’s goals as a writer and teacher are to give a voice to those who might not otherwise have one and to offer hope for change.
