Crisosto Apache

Crisosto Apache is the 11th Poet Laureate for Colorado (2026–2027), a recipient of the Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists Fellowship, a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and a board member for The Offing Magazine. Originally from Mescalero, New Mexico, on the Mescalero Apache reservation. Crisosto is Mescalero, Chiricahua (Chair-a-cow-ah), and Diné (De-neh), with maternal and paternal clanships in the Salt Clan and Towering House Clan.

Apache holds an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) and serves as an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.

Crisosto’s publications include the out-of-print collection GENESIS (Lost Alphabet), Ghostword—which won the Publishing Triangle’s 2023 Betty Berzon Emerging Writers Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Colorado Authors League Award in poetry—and is(ness), both published by Gnashing Teeth Publishing. For the past twenty years, they have advocated for the Two-spirit and Indigiqueer communities through local and national grassroots non-profit organizations.