Exploring language, memory, and belonging through poetry, fiction, and literary translation.

Photo: Grant McMillan

Hugo dos Santos is the author of Reduction in Force (Bauhan Publishing, 2026), winner of the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, and Then, there (Spuyten Duyvil, 2019), a collection of Newark stories. He is the translator of Homecoming (Arquipelago Press, 2024) and A Child in Ruins (Writ Large Press, 2016), a staff pick at the Paris Review Daily. Hugo was awarded a 2026 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Born in Lisboa, Portugal, and raised in Newark, New Jersey, he writes toward questions of diaspora, belonging, and memory.

 
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featured works

  • Read "We never said she was a maid," from DMQ Review in Fall 2016 (in PDF) — Nominee, Pushcart Prize 

  • Read "Borders," fiction from the collection Then, there (in PDF)

  • Read five poems, from A Child in Ruins, by José Luís Peixoto and translated by Hugo Dos Santos (in PDF)

Read my poetry
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News & Buzz

  • Reduction in Force is now available wherever books are sold.

    You can purchase it directly from the publisher here.

  • “Homecoming, translated by Hugo dos Santos (Arquipélago Press, 2024), is a collection of poetry that oscillates between different genres; it is poetry, it is travelogue, it is autobiographical creative nonfiction, it is deeply reflective philosophical inquiry.“

    Read the full article here.

    A huge thank you to Irene Marques for this generous review.

  • Reduction in Force, by Hugo dos Santos, won the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize, selected by Anthony Walton. It will be published by Bauhan Publishing.

    Read the full announcement here.

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