Sonia Guiñansaca

Sonia Guiñansaca (Kichwa-Kañari) is an award-winning poet and cultural strategist with 17 years of experience in movement and community organizing. A pioneer in undocumented youth activism, they co-founded major national advocacy organizations and artistic projects for undocumented writers. As a writer and performer, they create narrative poems on migration, queerness, and nostalgia, often collaborating with visual artists. They self-published their debut poetry book, "Nostalgia & Borders" (2016), which was recently translated into Kichwa and Spanish as "Nostalgia y Fronteras" by Severo Editorial. They co-edited the anthology, "Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices On Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings" (HarperCollins 2022). Sonia has been awarded residencies and fellowships from the Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, Poetry Foundation, British Council, and Creative Time, featured in Interview Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Teen Vogue, Democracy Now!, and PBS. They’ve been invited to Colombia, Ecuador, London, Argentina, and Mexico to speak on migrant policy and artivism.