Sydney Valerio is a creative non-fiction mixed genre writer and performer. She daylights as an educator & moonlights as a writer, translator, editor, content creator, and organizer. In 2016 she wrote and performed “Matters", a one woman show. Her poetry is in several anthologies. A 2019 BRIO Award winning poet & a 2020 VOLCANISTA, she is currently working on her first book as a recent graduate of the MFA in Creative Writing program at The City College of New York. She is also in the gathering and collecting phase of the Bronx Council on the Arts & NYC Cultural Affairs Department Arts funded creative digital archive project: Perspective Matters-NYC Kid Who's Now a NYC Adult.
A lifelong New York City resident, Sydney is the by-product of a Bronx K-12 NYC public school education whose experiences centered on community literacy and cultural advocacy. After graduating high school in '99, she dedicated nearly two decades of her life to serving the New York State educational system in various ways. She is a NYS certified educator who holds a B.A. in English & Education from Pace University, an M.A. in Technology & Education from Columbia University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York. She served as an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University for ten years. She coordinates youth leadership at her high school and for the New York City delegation of the Angelo del Toro Puerto Rican/Hispanic Youth Leadership Institute.