Mariana Romo-Carmona was born and raised in Chile. She writes fiction in English and Spanish, and teaches creative writing and Latin American Literature.

In the late sixties, Romo-Carmona emigrated to the U.S. from Chile with her parents. As an emerging writer, Romo-Carmona worked to create spaces for the publication of voices from lesbian, gay, and communities of color.

She produced the first lesbian and gay bilingual radio program with a feminist perspective in the late 70s, and as co-founder of Latina lesbian groups in Boston and New York City, she went on to participate in international networks in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico. Among other things, she became one of the early members of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and co-edited the ground-breaking anthology Cuentos: Stories by Latinas, in 1983.

Since 1994, Romo-Carmona has been on the faculty of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Goddard College. Some of the class workshops presented at Goddard: The Satellite Story, The Self-Consciousness of Language: Poetry and Translation, Cortázar and the Latin American Surrealists, Inhabiting the Canons: Sources and Inspirations of Contemporary Fiction, Critical Writing and Close Reading.