Neil de la Flor is a writer and educator. He is the author of the forthcoming title The Boat with a Girl’s Heart (Anhinga Press, November 2025), The Ars Magna for the Manifold Dimensions of z (JackLeg Press, 2021), An Elephant’s Memory of Blizzards (Marsh Hawk Press, 2013), and Almost Dorothy (Marsh Hawk Press, 2010).
His first book, Almost Dorothy, won the Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize. Forrest Gander writes, “Almost Dorothy is the red-headed stepchild of Antony (without the Johnsons) and Jean Cocteau. Infusing poetry with theater, Neil de la Flor is at once bitingly original, funny, and uncompromising.”
de la Flor’s second book, An Elephant’s Memory of Blizzards (Marsh Hawk Press), examines the narrator’s obsession with hope and memories. Julie Marie Wade writes, “The currency of these poems is sensory and extra-sensory. They have electric blue eyes and readily self-personify.They shape-shift and spontaneously combust. They speak to us in ‘the awe-/some language of hairdo.’ I can feel these poems on my skin like a blush. I can hold them between my teeth like pearls.” Read the full review here.
de la Flor is also the author of four collaborative books, including Sinead O’Connor and her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds (Firewheel Editions, 2011), co-authored with Maureen Seaton and winner of the Sentence Book Award; Facial Geometry (NeoPepper Press, 2006), co-authored with Maureen Seaton and Kristine Snodgrass; and Two Thieves and a Liar (Jackleg Press, 2012), also co-authored with Maureen Seaton and Kristine Snodgrass.
In Sarah Burghauser’s review of Sinead O’Connor and her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds for Lambda Literary, she writes, “Lusty, swanky, and well-toned, these poems are playful without being light, and smart without being esoteric. Read this book to witness an inspiring dexterity with language. Read this book for a loving sucker-punch to the brain. Read this book in a place where it is okay to lol, or even to loofah.”
de la Flor’s writings, both solo and collaborative, have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Barrow Street, Pank, Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, Court Green, Best American Poetry Blog among other journals. He earned a M.F.A. from the University of Miami where he was a Michener Fellow. He lives and teaches in South Florida.
Press &
My love (or fascination with) poetry
By Herb Sosa
Ambiente Magazine, July 17, 2016
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This ain’t your mamma’s poetry: writers showcase at the Miami Book Fair
By Craig Stanley
NBC News, November 21, 2015
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Reading Queer workshops provide platform for LGBT writers in South Florida
By Johany Hernandez
Miami Herald, June 8, 2015
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Miami-based Reading Queer awarded grant by National LGBTQ Task Force
By Neil Vaszquez
Miami New Times, November 5, 2014
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Beyond Boundaries
By Jennifer Maritza McCauley
Origins, October 21, 2015
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Interview with Neil de la Flor
By Jan Becker
Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, Issue 15
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An Elephant’s Memory of Blizzards
By Julie Marie Wade
Florida Book Review, 2013
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Sinead O’Connor and Her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds
By Alexis Oregera
The Rumpus, July 8, 2012
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Sinead O’Connor and Her Coat of a Thousand Bluebirds
By Sarah Burghauser
Lambda Literary, May 16, 2012
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Joey was Dorothy, and I was Almost Dorothy
By Kathleen Rooney
The Rumpus, July 9, 2010
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Neil de la Flor, On Letting Go
By Heather Falconer
Fringe Magazine, 2010
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The Rumpus Original (Supersized) Combo with Neil de la Flor
By Megan Roth
The Rumpus, July 2010
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On Neil de la Flor’s Almost Dorothy and the Generosity of Comic Imagination
By Steve Fellner
Pansy Poetics, June 24, 2010
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Maureen Seaton & Neil de la Flor
By Traci Brimhall
We Are Homer, March 2010
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Shout out to Neil de la Flor
By Rigoberto Gonzalez
Harriet, April 2010
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Is Neil de la Flor Almost Dorothy
By Maureen Seaton
Scene360.com, 2010
Review of Almost Dorothy
By Jessica Maybury
Decomp Magazine, August 9, 2010
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Review of Facial Geometry
By Terese Svoboda
Diagram, Issue 7.2
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Neil de la Flor 