Carmen Giménez, formerly known as Carmen Giménez Smith, is an American poet, memoirist, editor, and publisher. She is the director and publisher of Graywolf Press, where she serves as executive director, and a former publisher of Noemi Press, which she led for twenty years. Her poetry collection Be Recorder was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019 and the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in 2020.
Giménez was born on February 20, 1971, in New York City. She earned a BA from San Jose State University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Giménez taught at New Mexico State University and later was a professor of English at Virginia Tech. She has also taught at Bennington College.
In 2002, Giménez founded Noemi Press, the "historically brown and queer" independent literary press, and served as its publisher for twenty years. She is also a co-director of CantoMundo. In 2017, Giménez was named a poetry editor of The Nation, alongside Stephanie Burt. In 2022, Giménez became director and publisher of Graywolf Press. She serves as the press's executive director.
Giménez is the author of six poetry collections and a memoir. Her collection Milk and Filth was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry. Be Recorder (2019) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry, the PEN/Open Book Award, the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Her memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds, received an American Book Award. Her collection Goodbye, Flicker won the Juniper Prize for Poetry.
In 2009, Giménez was named one of the Poetry Society of America's New American Poets. She received a Howard Foundation fellowship in creative nonfiction in 2011, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2019, and the Academy of American Poets Fellowship in 2020.
Many of Giménez's earlier books were published under the name Carmen Giménez Smith.