Francisco X. Alarcón was a poet, translator, and educator from Wilmington, California. His books of poetry include Tattoos (1985), Ya Vas, Carnal (1985), Loma Prieta (1990), Cuerpo en llamas/Body in Flames (1990), De amor oscuro/Of Dark Love (1991), Poemas zurdos (1992), Snake Poems (1992), No Golden Gate for Us (1993), Sonetos a la locura y otras penas/Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes (2001), Del otro lado de la noche/ From the Other Side of Night (2002), Ce Uno One: Poems for the New Sun/Poemas para el Nuevo Sol (2010), Borderless Butterflies: Earth Haikus and Other Poems/Mariposas sin fronteras: Haikus terrenales y otros poemas (2014). In 1985 along with poets Juan Pablo Gutierrez and Rodrigo Reyes, Alarcón founded Las Cuarto Espinas, the first gay Chicano poets collective. He also wrote and published many Spanish language instruction textbooks and a number of award-winning, bilingual poetry books for children, including Animal Poems of the Iguazú/Animalario del Iguazú, Poems to Dream Together/Poemas Para Soñar Juntos, winner of the 2006 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de invierno. Alarcón won the 1981 Ruben Dario Prize for poetry, 1993 American Book Award, the Carlos Pellicer-Robert Frost Poetry Honor Award, Chicano Literary Prize, Fred Cody Lifetime Achievement Award, the 1993 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award, the Pura Belpré Honor Award by the American Library Association, as well as Danforth and Fulbright fellowships.

He was a lecturer of Spanish at the University of California, Davis and the director of the Spanish for Native Speakers program, in addition to teaching for the Art of the Wild workshop and the California Poets in the Schools program.