Born in Washington DC in 1948, poet Mark Smith-Soto was raised in Costa Rica from the age of two because his mother was from there and his father loved the country. He then moved back with his family to Washington DC in 1957 because his parents wanted him to have an American education and to grow up bilingual in English and Spanish.

                              

Smith-Soto grew up in Costa Rica until around the age of eleven. His mother’s family loved to recite poetry and it began to become an interest of his. That his family had such respect for writers made a great impression on him. Not much after he moved back to the United States of America at the age of twelve, he wrote his first poem, addressing his mother. When his maternal grandfather was ill his mother went back to Costa Rica to spend some time with him and so Mark would write letters to her. Within those letters, he included some poems.