Maelo Dones earned his BA in English — Creative Writing at CSUN, summa cum laude, while serving as the first out queer Puerto Rican President of Sigma Tau Delta at CSUN. He’s the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Scarlet Review, a new Cal State international literary magazine. He’s also the Spring 2025 Managing Editor of the Northridge Review, where he’s published stories in addition to publications in Valley by Valley & Pfudalmda Dadamag.
As an incoming MFA graduate student in the SFSU MFA program, he’s just been named an Arnold Scholar, as winner of the Bernice Ruben Arnold scholarship.
His favorite authors are Justin Torres, Octavia Butler and Suzanne Collins, favorite film—Back to the Future, and favorite show—Doctor Who. Moving from Palmdale to San Francisco, he was born and raised in Fajardo, but has lived all over LA with his husband and cats—Karma and Simba.
Maelo Dones 