2013 Letras Latinas Residency Fellow: Cristian Flores Garcia

Last July, Cristian Flores Garcia, in her capacity as the 6th Letras Latinas Residency Fellow, spent a month at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN. Letras Latinas Blog sent her a few questions: some room for her to reflect upon her experience.  —FA

Letras Latinas Blog:

You arrived at your Anderson Center Residency on the heels of attending your first CantoMundo retreat. I’m guessing that perhaps you were, therefore, in a good space. Could you briefly share something about your CantoMundo experience? How was it?

Cristian Flores Garcia:

CantoMundo was everything I didn’t expect. Conferences and retreats are usually fast-paced-hectic events where the focus and most of the energy goes to the work one brings, the work generated while there, and methods to help create new work once the event is over and everyone goes home. That’s what I expected from CantoMundo. But CantoMundo wasn’t just about producing work and building community. What I found so refreshing was that CantoMundo is about nurturing a family; it is about listening and empathizing. CantoMundo was about poets, poetry, academia, publishing, networking, and all that good stuff every poet, writer, artist needs to survive and move a career forward. But what surprised me and humbled me was the comfort I found there because our conversations were not restricted to writing and poetry. It was like meeting relatives I knew existed but hadn’t had the opportunity to meet in person and once we were face to face, we talked about food, music, novelas, and El Chavo del Ocho. CantoMundo is about bilingualism, about the cultures we inhabit and contribute to, it is about the duality and complexities of being Latino, and it is about our intertwining roots, the loudness and enthusiasm we Latinos exude. I felt at home. I felt comfortable. I left knowing that at any time I can pick up the phone, call out to the CantoMundistas and say: “I need you,” certain that there will be a voice responding: “I’m here, I’m listening,” and it doesn’t have to be only about writing, or poems, or career opportunities, but anything concerning life.

LLB:

My understanding is that this was not your first residency experience (the one at the Anderson Center). With that in mind, what expectations/goals did you set for yourself for your Letras Latinas Residency?

CFG:

I have learned not to set expectations/goals in stone, because as it is well known, life happens while we are making plans. An artist’s residency is a gift, a granted surprise waiting to be unwrapped. When I knew for sure that I would be able to accept and attend (thanks to the generous help of Eduardo C. Corral) the Letras Latinas Residency, I had one goal: write new poems. I have a manuscript that I’ve been working on for quite some time now. It is a manuscript that I am in love with. It is, at times, a manuscript that is painful enough for me to have to set it down and leave it alone for a while. It is a manuscript that has changed me. It is a project I believe will teach, impact, and empower other people, as much as it has impacted and empowered me. And although I want this manuscript to be out in the world, I wanted to take the time at The Anderson Center to let go of the poems I have and force myself to write new work. I half succeeded, because I did write new work—some flash fiction that has already been accepted for publication and new love poems—however, I couldn’t stay away from my manuscript and basically reconceived, redrafted, and revised some of those poems. 

LLB:

You were in Red Wing, MN for a month. Could you give readers of Letras Latinas Blog a taste of your time there? In other words, did you settle into any sort of routine? If so, what was it?

CFG:

I am a person of rituals and routines. Rituals and routines give me a sense of control and at the same time provide a creative freedom that arises at those moments when I am going through the motions of a task that my body already knows how to perform without me thinking much about it. So I settled into a privileged routine of at least six straight hours of sleep at night, and going for a run every morning. New ideas came to me while alone, pushing my body to take a few more steps than the day before. And after I finished my run, still sweating and catching my breath, I would go straight to the desk and try to write down as many ideas and images as I could recall that came to me while I was running, fighting mosquitoes, listening to the birds sing, stumbling upon a turtle, or being frightened by slithering snakes, and waving hello to bike riders and other runners.

I get distracted very easily—by a spider crawling along the windowsill, by the wind playing with a feather caught on a tree branch, by the mosquito drowning in the blue cup of green tea resting next to my computer—so after an hour or so of writing I had breakfast and I read. I don’t get distracted when I’m reading, because I love reading, and at home where life happens, I don’t have as much time to be in solitude and enjoy the passing of time reading aloud. I read as much as I could while at the Anderson Center. Most days, in the afternoons, I wrote. Some days I worked on new poems, other days I only wrote in a journal, or spent my evening writing out by hand poems I admire, to know what it feels like to write those poems.

Every night, dinner was at 6:30p.m. Dinnertime was a delight. I looked forward to the food and the conversations. There were only six of us fellows, so we all bonded quickly. We had opportunities to talk about out lives, art, our projects and how all of these play a role in the world.

I also had the grand opportunity of spending time with the other fellows doing crazy fun activities, like bike riding, hiking, learning about print making, singing out of tune, and eating a lot of ice cream. Every moment there taught me a little more about attention, devotion, intimate understanding of process, and tenderness.

This residency was very spiritual. I dealt with many fears and demons: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I allowed myself to get lost in the beauty and serenity of the Anderson Center.

LLB:

It’s my understanding that all residents at the Anderson Center have to do some sort of activity in the community (I remember when I went, I visited a high school). What was your activity? Could you tell us a little about it?

CFG:

My community service was to give a reading as part of the Anderson Center’s Summer Celebration of the Arts. It was a lovely day filled with music, art, food, and the community so eager to see, hear, and ask about the work produced by all, established and emerging scholars and artists. After the reading, I had people come up to me saying how much they enjoyed the poems I read, how humor and sadness went hand in hand so perfectly, how the poems helped them see something they hadn’t seen before, and how they wished I had a book that they could buy. I was ecstatic. I felt lucky for the opportunity to share my work with these people and feel their appreciation. I couldn’t stop smiling that day. It was one of the highlights of my residency.

LLB:

What advice would you give a writer who hasn’t been on a residency, but is ready to give it a try?

CFG:

Be ready for anything. Be ready for your plans to be forgotten. Be ready to meet people who will change your life forever. Be ready to have days when you forget to eat or shower because you can’t stop working on something you had no idea you were going to work on. Be ready to have days when you do nothing but eat junk food, dance, sing, and share childhood stories that make you laugh and cry at the same time. Be ready to feel yourself changing, moving closer to nature and art, because most residencies offer these first and foremost. Be ready to forget about the life outside the residency, and not feel guilty for doing so. Remember that the moments lived while in residency, can never again be replicated to be exactly as they are when you’re there, because even if you’re so lucky to go back to the same residency, the chances of the same staff, the same fellows, the same ideas, happening again are like winning the lottery when you most need it with a found ticket. And just be ready for anything.

*

Previous Letras Latinas Residency Fellows:

Michelle Otero (2008)

John Chávez (2009)

Diana Marie Delgado (2010)

Jacob Saenz (2011)

Sara Campos (2012)
Cristian Flores Garcia (2013)

And now at the helm, Don Share: a Letras Latinas exclusive

Don Share

On November 3rd in 2007, Emily Warn wrote a blog post on the Poetry Foundation’s website titled, “Essentialism? Say What?” in which I and a few others were mentioned by name. It generated quite a lively and, at times, testy stream of comments for a couple of days, including one on November 4th by yours truly that started: “Dear Don Share:” and wound down this way:

“Is that Poetry’s official response for not reviewing, for example, Bent to the Earth by Blas Manuel de Luna and nominated for the National Book Critic Circle’s Prize in 2005? Or Alberto Rios’ latest book, published with Copper Canyon, Theater of Night, and also a winner of a recent award by PEN American?
 How much longer does your magazine intend to keep this perfect record intact?
 F”

The perfect record I was referring to was the number of books by Latino/a poets (0) that Poetry had reviewed since 2003.

Shortly thereafter, Don Share, to his credit, took the initiative and e-mailed me directly.

Through the course of our back channel e-correspondence, we grew to become cordial colleagues, hearing each other out to better undersand the challenges that our respective work in the field presented to us. Over lunch in Chicago once, for example, he re-counted how he had tried, without success, to find a reviewer for The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry. And so I grew to view him, in the end, as an ally. So much so that last spring at AWP I was delighted to introduce and moderate a session I had conceived of called “Sons of Boston,” which featured him and Tino Villanueva.

When it was announced that he’d be taking over the top post at Poetry a few months ago, I decided to ask him if he’d be open to taking a few questions. We’ve decided to hold on to the interview until now—on the cusp of Poetry’s October issue, which will be Don’s first, editorially speaking.

Gracias, Don!

Letras Latinas Blog:

Back in 2010, Letras Latinas and the Ragdale Foundation, with funding from the NEA, hosted a week-long residency for 8 poet-editors. We called the initiative 8 Poetas. During that week, we convened a series of conversations on the challenges of being both practicing poets and editors of verse—something with which you are very familiar over the course your career at various publications, including Harvard Review and Poetry. How would you describe the role poetry editing has had on your own work as an artist, and how has that dynamic evolved? The second part of that question: now that you are assuming the helm of Poetry, do you see that changing in any way, and if so, how?

Don Share:

As an editor, my work is entirely in service to readers and to writers, so it’s a very separate endeavor.  But it’s fair to say that when I’m writing, I have to avoid doing things that strike me as ill-judged in work I’m considering for the magazine.  I don’t think that writing poems and editing involve the same skills, frankly; you can be good at one without being any good whatsoever at the other!   

LLB:

As you understand it, how would you describe the difference between the role you are now occupying at Poetry and the role you’ve had at the magazine for the last few years? Do you see that changing? For example, will there be someone stepping into the Senior Editor position you are leaving behind? If so, will you have a say on who is hired?

DS:

Well, there’s a big difference between what I did before and what I am doing now.  I enjoyed and learned a lot from my collaboration with Christian Wiman, in which we combined our complimentary strengths and were very successful; but… I’ll be flying solo now.  I have an amazing crew with me, though.  Our new Assistant Editor is Lindsay Garbutt, who just finished three great years as Editorial Assistant.  Fred Sasaki, formerly our Associate Editor, is now Poetry’s Art Director, and in that role he’ll continue to create the look, feel, and texture of the magazine, but he’ll also bring in all kinds of new visual content.  Our brilliant Managing Editor, Valerie Jean Johnson diligently and creatively navigates a rapidly changing and complex environment for publishing.  Christina Pugh, who was our long-time Reader, is now Consulting Editor.  And we’re in the process of hiring a new Editorial Assistant.  I’m also hoping eventually to bring on board several Contributing Editors to broaden the scope even further.

LLB:

It has been said that a national search for Poetry’s new editor had been underway for some time now, and you made it known that you had “thrown your name into the hat.” One imagines that applicants for this post had to articulate what their particular vision and philosophy would be as the new editor of Poetry. I’m assuming that, as an applicant, you had to formulate such a statement yourself. Would you share with the readers of Letras Latinas Blog a few of the highlights of your “poetry editing philosophy.” In other words, aside from your trajectory as a poetry editor at the previous publications you’ve worked for, what will Don Share be bringing to the table as the editor of Poetry that he couldn’t bring as Senior Editor?

DS:

Well, to be very succinct, I want to have more diverse – in every way – content, and alongside that, a more diverse readership. You can read more about this in an editorial I’ve written for the October 2013 issue, my first.

LLB:

Without getting into specifics, could share with our readers some areas in which readers of the next iteration of Poetry magazine can expect some changes? One assumes that the magazine, over time, will evolve and that that evolution will reflect your vision of what the magazine can become. Will the translation issue, for example, remain? If so, will it change in any way, be enhanced, etc?

DS:

I’m going not going to spoil any surprises I have in store!  In addition to the diversity I’ve mentioned, I have a pretty good list of changes to implement, but you’ll have to keep an eye on the magazine (in both the new digital edition and print) over the next few years to see what they are.  So I’m going to ask readers to bear with me in good faith as I move forward.

LLB:

Don, the fact that you agreed to take on these questions from Letras Latinas Blog speaks, I’d like to think, to the dialogue you and I have been engaged in, behind the scenes, since shortly after you came to Poetry. You reached out a few years ago when I was more public with my disappointment about the dearth of reviews at Poetry (well, the non-existence, really) of collections written by Latino/as. It was very instructive and helpful to learn of the challenges you faced in trying to get reviews of books by Latino/a poets into print. Since we initiated that dialogue, Poetry has reviewed Bird Eating Bird by Kristin Naca. So you’ve been able to witness first hand, and from the inside, how slow progress can be. So here is my final question: do you foresee being able to do things in your new position that will assist Poetry in improving this number (1)? Is it something you’ve given, or will give any thought to? If so, can you share with us what's on your mind?

DS:

Francisco, as we’ve discussed, there are people who are afraid or unwilling to address work done in communities other than their own, and this is a great problem, not just for Poetry.  Our conversations have been salutary; and Barbara Jane Reyes has brilliantly addressed the question of communities and where nurturing comes from, and should come from.  There are big questions involved, as she points out: Is there a mainstream?  Who should be in it?  Who wants to be in it?  Is the so-called mainstream good or bad?  Whatever one’s answers, there’s a lot of work to be done.  Discussion is vitally important, but as a practical matter, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked for poems and reviews from people who don’t come through for various reasons. 

Yet I’m extremely hopeful.  The response to Eduardo C. Corral’s first book, for example (which included poems that first appeared in Poetry and earned him our highest magazine award), shows that the mainstream ice can be broken in very significant ways that actually alter the landscape of poetry.  Just the other day we got the news that Alberto Ríos, who was in the magazine quite recently, is now the Arizona Poet Laureate.  There are many more examples.  As we all know, the ice is melting everywhere. 

For what it’s worth, I’ve been in the job just one month and already have new work for Poetry from Tomás Morín, Gina Franco, Deborah Paredez, Rafael Campo, and Jacob Saenz; Erika L. Sanchez, as I write this, is a Lilly Fellowship finalist.  But there’s much more to do, and there’s more that will be done.  The word, however, is out…  Thanks for helping me get it out, Francisco!

El Paso Photo Gallery: September 24, 2013

Letras Latinas kicked off its 2013/14 season last night in El Paso, TX. Our thanks to the faculty of the Creative Writing Department at UTEP for saying Yes/Sí to this collaboration, which was pitched over dinner in Manhattan, oh, a year and a half ago!

Laurie Ann Guerrero and Dan Vera

(photo credit: Daniel Chacón)

Dan Vera

winner of the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize

(photo credit: Daniel Chacón)

Rosa Alcalá with poet as backdrop

(photo credit: Daniel Chacón)

Laurie Ann Guerrero

winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

(photo credit: Daniel Chacón)

Los poetas

(photo credit: Daniel Chacón)

LETRAS LATINAS EN TEJAS!

Holding a place of honor is the flyer that officially kicks off our soon to launch season.

Heartfelt thanks to the good folks at the University of Texas in El Paso for this collaboration.

LETRAS LATINAS PRESENTS: 2013/2014

Around this time last year I said “Letras Latinas Presents” isn’t so much a “season” as a multi-faceted manifestation of solid partnerships. This year is no exception. Some highlights? I’ll mention four. For the first time, we are presenting a lecture: “Latino Poetry: Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition” by Rigoberto González, in collaboration with the Library of Congress. With the Poetry Society of America, we are presenting the “grand finale” (we kicked off in 2011 at Harvard) of “Latino/a Poetry Now” at Notre Dame with Blas Falconer, Raina J. León, Maria Melendez, and John Murillo. We are featuring in Chicago the winner and judge of the inaugural Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize, Dan Vera and Orlando Ricardo Menes, respectively, hosted by the Poetry Foundation. And (drum roll) we inaugurate our next multi-year initiative: “PINTURA : PALABRA"—within the context of the Latino Art Now! conference in Washington, D.C. with a special session titled “Ekphrasis: theory, then practice in poems inspired by Latino art” featuring Tino Villanueva and Eduardo C. Corral, in tandem with the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.” And much more… Without further delay:

 “LETRAS LATINAS PRESENTS”

—2013/2014—

September 24, 2013

El Paso, TX

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize

present

Laurie Ann Guerrero

Dan Vera

@

7:00 PM

UTEP Library

Blumberg Auditorium

University of Texas at El Paso

co-sponsored with

The Department of Creative Writing Program, UTEP

***

October 2, 2012

South Bend, IN

Notre Dame Center for Arts & Culture

presents

Orlando Ricardo Menes

Lauro Vazquez

Lynda Letona

in tandem with the exhibit

“The African Presence in Mexico”

& Hispanic Heritage Month

@

7:00 PM

Notre Dame Center for Art and Culture

1045 W. Washington Street

co-sponsored with

Crossroads Gallery of Contemporary Art

Notre Dame Creative Writing Program

Notre Dame Community Relations

***

October 24, 2013

Chicago, IL

The Poetry Foundation’s “Poetry Off the Shelf”

presents

Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize

Orlando Ricardo Menes (judge)

Dan Vera (winner)

@

7:00 PM

Poetry Foundation

61 West Superior Street

co-sponsored  with

Red Hen Press, the Guild Complex, the Ragdale Foundation

***

October 30, 2013

South Bend, IN

The Poetry Society of America/Letras Latinas

presents

“Latino/a Poetry Now”

(“the grand finale”)

Raina J. León

Blas Falconer

Maria Melendez

John Murillo

@

7:30 PM

Ecks Center Auditorium

University of Notre Dame

co-sponsored with

Institute for Scholarship and the Liberal Arts

The Institute for Latino Studies

The Graduate School

The Helen Kellog Institute for International Studies

The José E. Fernández Hispanic Studies Caribbean Initiative

The Creative Writing Program

The English Department

Africana Studies

Multicultural Student Programs and Services

***

November 6, 2013

South Bend, IN

reading from FETISH

winner of the Prairie Schooner Prize

Orlando Ricardo Menes

@

7:30 PM

Hammes Bookstore

University of Notre Dame

co-sponsored with

Creative Writing Program, ND

***

November 8, 2013

Washington, D.C.

“Latino Art Now!”

presents

“Ekphrasis: theory, then practice

in poems inspired by Latino art”*

Tino Villanueva

Eduardo C. Corral

@

4:30 PM

Patrons Lounge

National Museum of the American Indian

Washington, D.C.

co-sponsored with

the Smithsonian Institution and its Smithsonian Latino Center,

Smithsonian American Art Museum,

and the Inter-University Program

for Latino Research (IUPLR), headquartered at UIC.

***

December 5, 2013

Chicago, IL

The Poetry Foundation’s “Poetry Off the Shelf”

presents

Eduardo C. Corral

Carmen Giménez Smith

Sheryl Luna

Deborah Parédez

@

7:00 PM

The Poetry Foundation

 61 West Superior Street

co-sponsored with

CantoMundo, the Guild Complex

 ***

January 13, 2014

Palm Beach, FL

“Sons of the Caribbean:

Two American Writers”

Richard Blanco

Fred Arroyo

@

6:00 pm

Dixon Auditorium

Dixon Education Building

Society of the Four Arts

co-sponsored with Society of the Four Arts

***

February 12, 2014

South Bend, IN

Ernest Sandeen Prize reading

Manuel Paul Lopez

@

7:30 PM

Hammes Bookstore

University of Notre Dame

***

February 14, 2014

Washington, D.C.

Library of Congress presents

“PINTURA : PALABRA

poetry inspired by art”

a colloquium

Brenda Cárdenas

Valerie Martínez

@

2:00 PM

Room LJ-119 

Jefferson Building

Library of Congress

co-sponsored by Hispanic Division (LOC),

the Poetry and Literature Center (LOC)

Center for the Book (LOC)

***

February 16, 2014

Washington, D.C.

“Sunday Kind of Love”

presents

“PINTURA : PALABRA

a project in ekphrasis”

a post-workshop reading

Elizabeth Acevedo

Carlos Parada Ayala

Carmen Calatayud

Brenda Cárdenas

John Chávez

Carmen Gimenez Smith

Valerie Martínez

Samuel Miranda

Juan J. Morales

Yvette Neisser Moreno

Emma Trelles

Dan Vera

@

5:00 PM

Busboys and Poets

14^th and V NW

Co-sponsored with

Busboys and Poets

Split This Rock

Cultural DC

Smithsonian American Art Museum

 ***

March 27-30, 2014

Washington, D.C.

“Split This Rock Poetry Festival:

poems of provocation and witness”

Sheila Black

Franny Choi

Eduardo C. Corral

Gayle Danley

Natalie Diaz

Joe Harjo

Yusef Komunyakaa

Maria Melendez

Dunya Mikhail

Shailja Patel

Wang Ping

Claudia Rankine

Tim Seible

Myra Sklarew

Danez Smith

Anne Waldman

co-sponsored with

Busboys and Poets, Letras Latinas and others

***

April 8, 2014

Pueblo, CO

The SoCo Reading Series

presents

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize

featuring

Laurie Ann Guerrero

Dan Vera

@

7:00 PM

Library and Academic Resources Center (LARC)

University of Colorado, Pueblo

co-sponsored with

Diversity Resource Center

English and Foreign Languages Department

***

April 10, 2014
Washington, D.C.

“Latino Poetry:

Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition”

Rigoberto González

@

6:30 PM

Montpelier Room

Madison Building, 6^th Floor

Library of Congress

co-sponsored with Hispanic Division (LOC),

the Poetry and Literature Center (LOC)

Center for the Book (LOC)

***

April 14, 2014

South Bend, IN

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

presents

Francisco X. Alarcón (judge)

Laurie Ann Guerrero (winner)

@

7:30 PM

210-214 McKenna Hall

University of Notre Dame

co-sponsored with

the Institute for Latino Studies

Department of Romance Languages

***

April 20, 2014

Washington, D.C.

“Sunday Kind of Love”

presents

Pablo Miguel Martínez

Elizabeth Acevedo

@

5: 00 PM

Busboys & Poets

14^th and V  NW

co-sponsored with

Split This Rock, Busboys and Poets

***

June 10, 2014

New York, NY

Word for Word

Barbara Brinson Curiel

Carmen Calatayud

David Tomás Martínez

Pablo Miguel Martínez

@

7: 00 PM

Bryant Park

New York City

***

“Letras Latinas Presents”

is an initiative of Letras Latinas—

the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies

at the University of Notre Dame

*

Letras Latinas programming is made possible,

in part, thanks to the generosity of individual donors

and the Weissberg Foundation