Writer, Director, Producer
“Write what should not be forgotten.”
— Isabel Allende
Darrel Alejandro Holnes is the author of Stepmotherland (Notre Dame Press, 2022) & Migrant Psalms (Northwestern Press, 2021). His literary writing has been published in English, Spanish, and French in literary journals, anthologies, other books and productions worldwide and online. He also writes, directs, and produces for the stage and screen. Most of his writing centers on love, family, race, immigration, and joy.
Holnes is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays have received productions or development opportunities at the Kennedy Center for the Arts American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), The Brick Theater, Kitchen Theater Company, BAAD the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, JACK, National Black Theater, and elsewhere. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Civilians R&D Group, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Workshop, and other groups. His plays, Starry Night, and Bayano, were both finalists for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, the Princess Grace Award in Playwriting, and several other awards and honors. His other plays include Black Feminist Video Game, which won an Anthem Award (presented by The Webbys) and was produced by The Civilians for 59E59 Theaters’ Plays in Place, Center Theater Group, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College. His play Franklin Ave was featured in The Sol Project’s Sol Fest and as a part of the Sin Muros Festival at Stages Houston. As a theater director he most recently directed Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer for the Kitchen Theater Company. Holnes is the recipient of a Catalyst Fellowship from the Dramatists Guild Foundation.
Writing for the Stage
Holnes wrote the film Marimacha, which has been screened at over a dozen festivals worldwide, including Out on Film, Aesthetica Film Festival, and the New York Latino Film Festival, where it made its New York premiere in 2023. The film has garnered critical acclaim, winning Best of the Fest at Pride Film Fest and Best LGBT Short from the Los Angeles Independent Women Film Awards among other awards and nominations.
Beyond Marimacha, Holnes has developed work for VICE Media, Audible, Gimlet Media, and other major companies, expanding his storytelling across different platforms and mediums including podcasts. His creative work often explores themes of identity, belonging, and cultural heritage, with a focus on underrepresented voices in film and media.
Currently, he is developing Nando, a feature film that delves into the complexities of international adoption, family, and personal discovery, as well as several other projects in film and theater. Through his work, Holnes continues to push the boundaries of narrative storytelling, blending poetic and cinematic elements to craft stories that resonate with diverse audiences.
Writing and Directing for the Screen
Holnes is the author of Stepmotherland, published by Notre Dame Press in 2022, and Migrant Psalms, published by Northwestern University Press in 2021. He is the co-author of Prime from Sibling Rivalry Press, an Over the Rainbow List selection by the American Library Association, and the co-editor of Happiness, The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, published to commemorate the United Nations International Day of Happiness. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, the C.P. Cavafy Prize from Poetry International, Andres Montoya Poetry Prize from Letras Latinas, International Latino Book Award, Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Medal, the Drinking Gourd Poetry Prize from Northwestern University Press, and others.
He has done writing residencies at the BAU Institute at the Camargo Foundation, MacDowell, Marble House Project, Rose O’Neill Literary House, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and Ucross Foundation. He was recently received the Theodore Morrison Fellowship in Poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and fellowships to CantoMundo, Cave Canem, Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers Conference, and elsewhere. His poems have been published in AGNI, American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Best American Experimental Writing, Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts, and elsewhere in print and online. Recently, his poem “When the Narcos Kidnap Juanfe” was nominated by AGNI for Best of the Net and his poem “Transcendental Love Song” was the Poetry Foundation’s Poem-of-the-Day. His poem “Cristo Negro de Portobelo” was included in the Library of America’s Latino Poetry anthology edited by Rigoberto Gonzalez, and his poem “Black Parade” was an Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day.
Writing for the Page
Holnes studied classical and jazz saxophone at the Instituto Nacional de Música de Panamá, part of the Instituto Nacional de Arts y Cultura (INAC) in his native country of Panama. He has since produced a jazz album, and he continues collaborating with musicians in New York with whom he writes and performs music in his spare time. He collaborates with dancers and choreographers to create a variety of performance pieces and he has performed his poetry at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Bowery Poetry Club, Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, and elsewhere nationwide and overseas. Next, Holnes will present music from his show Bayano at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater as part of Carnegie Hall’s Nuestros Sonidos festival supported by True Colors Theater and Miss Mason Productions. He is featured in the first episode of MTV’s documentary series De la Calle, where he discusses the Afro-Panamanian community’s contributions to Reggae and Reggaeton.
Making Music & Performance
“I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.”
— Maya Angelou
