WRITERLY BIOS,
PUBLICATIONS,
& AWARDS.
<50 WORD BIO
For all publications and event-marketing, please use this bio and either this headshot or the one below. Note that I publish under "K. Degala-Paraíso."
K. Degala-Paraíso (she/they) is a Los Angeles-based, Filipinx-American experimental writer. Her work has appeared in ANMLY, [PANK] Magazine, Okay Donkey Magazine, and elsewhere; and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She teaches creative writing independently and through GrubStreet. More at kdegalaparaiso.com.*
AN EXTENDED BIO
I said my first word on the stoop of my childhood home in Brooklyn, NYC: book. It was an omen I could never shake.
I wrote my first story when I was 5 years old. It explored the tense, tender relationship between my sensitized house and my family. From then on, I wrote constantly and took every workshop I could find. When I began college at Pitzer, I tried to trade my writerly inclinations in for more lucrative pursuits...except I couldn't help but take writing class after writing class after writing class until I inadvertently earned a B.A. in English/World Literature (Creative Writing track). For my capstone, I wrote a 20,500 collection of hybrid works about diasporic women negotiating culture and environment. The title-story of the collection, “Morena,” was awarded the 2018 Bea Matas Hollfelder Award.
Since 2020, I have been teaching virtual creative writing classes through GrubStreet, a leading creative writing center in the U.S. In 2022, I worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Comparative Literature at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2023, I launched my own independent classes.
I'm especially passionate about empowering art activists. For the past five summers, I have served as a creative writing judge for Bow Seat's Annual Ocean Awareness Contest, a global platform for young people (ages 11-18) to explore environmental issues through art, connect with a changing world, and advocate for positive change. I have also been an ongoing consultant for social justice-oriented writers on projects ranging from an interracial romance set during the Black Lives Matter movement, to dystopian fiction responding to today’s political climate, to a hybrid collection on Haitian revolution, diaspora, and liberation.
My own writing attempts to challenge conventions of craft and sucker-punch you in the gut. I primarily write experimental, creative nonfiction, and prose poetry. My secret ingredient: a dash of the strange/mystical/speculative. My current project meditates on mental illness, chaotic sisters, and lemongrass. You can peruse my published works below.
If you’re looking for a writing consultant, editor, artistic co-conspirator, or teacher, I’d love to hear from you.
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PUBLICATIONS, INTERVIEWS, & AWARDS
Bupropion Hydrochloride, or Pills for Vanquishing
Heavy Feather Review,
forthcoming (October 2025).
"...That year, your sister stole your identity, opened up seven new credit cards, and maxed them all out.
And now here she is again, at your doorstep. You’d be crazy to let her in, but she’s your sister. You don’t know who you’d be without her.
So you open the door."
Archipelago
MacQueen's Quinterly,
forthcoming (September 2025).
"It is 9:12pm on a Thursday. There are no stars in the smog-smitten sky..."
The inconvenience store
jmww,
May 30, 2025.
"The cash register is full of pennies and paper straws and unanswered calls..."
The Slaughter of Wild Boars
Penumbra Online,
Fall 2024 Issue*.
"Me sits in tall grasses, smell pretty flowers. Try eats flowers, me did, once — looks so pretty, smells so pretty, me wants to taste — but no sees bee on flower. Accident! Bee stings me tongue! Oo-wee! An’ me swallows! Poor bee, just wants to smell flowers! Never eats flowers again, me says."
*selected as Staff Favorite
I am in a red dress at Les Ambassadeurs, an ekphrastic poem after Edgar Degas
Eunoia Review,
November 12, 2024.
"There is a room full of people..."
Writing to Recover & Reimagine,
interview hosted by Shawna Rodrigues,
Author Express, Episode 16, 2023.
"I have all of these places inside of my body now."
It's Been Years, a golden shovel after Mary Oliver
Black Fox Literary Magazine,
Issue #24, 2023.
"mere minutes after i got the call that i never expected to receive i began to Look..."
Philippines 2022
The Lumiere Review,
Issue 11, 2022.
"I must keep my correspondence short in case of interception. The kalabaw must cross the river. Be safe. And soon, I will be with you on the other side."
A History of Skin
Anomaly,
ANMLY #35, 2022.
"Mama [grandmother] started coming to me in my dreams before she was even dead."
A shortlist of cheeses and wines I would take home for free when I worked in the Specialty Department at Whole Foods
Okay Donkey Magazine,
May 2, 2022.
"The parmigiano reggiano crumbles when you slice it, and I remember how the world crumbles beyond this ranch where we temporarily live..."
My Girlfriend Attempts To Reincarnate Her Aunt, Barely Two Weeks After She Died
[PANK] Magazine,
PANK 16 & 17 in print, 2022.
"I lead the caterpillars in a Socratic seminar, intent on answering the question: is this what healthy grief looks like?
After conferring all afternoon, the 7,200 caterpillars are still at an impasse."
This Is How You Haunt Me
miniskirt magazine,
Issue 08, 2021.
"One year after you witness them filling your grave, come find me.
Please — come find me."
Winner of the Bea Matas Hollfelder Award for Creative Writing,
2018.
...awared by the English and World Literature Department for "Morena," the titular short story of my capstone creative writing project.
SPATHIPHYLLUM
You tip a tub of water in my direction, never
fully dowsing my leaves, only ever
gifting me a dainty dribble — you tease,
with your half-drawn blinds, only a lick
of sunshine. The breeze stops
against the window’s glass.
I shoot out new growth, stretching for something
greater, something better, some kind
of wilderness
K. Degala-Paraíso, Summer 2022
.
*wow, you really went looking for this asterisks. I admire your dedication.
Archive of last lines used for my <50 word writer's bio; I write a new one for every new publication. Use whichever at your discretion:
"When she's not writing, you can catch K. wreaking culinary havoc in the kitchen."
"When she's not writing, catch K. sunbathing alongside her Calendula seedlings in Southern California."
"When she's not writing, catch K. organizing toward liberation."
"When she's not writing, catch K. hauling ass up the Santa Monica Mountains."
"When she's not writing, catch K. bickering with her ghosts as she wanders the streets of Los Angeles."
"She loves key lime pie dearly."
"Sometimes, she teaches creative writing. Other times, she refinishes furniture."
"She teaches creative writing and drives stick."
"She teaches creative writing and cuts her own hair."
"She teaches creative writing and likes her mangoes sour."