Joseph Rios
How the John K. Walsh Residency Fellowship (formerly
the Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship) is determined varies. There is no
formal application process, but rather an organic process of discernment which
may, at times, tap colleagues in the field for a
recommendation. It must be someone who has been
working at their art for some time, usually well into a “post MFA phase”
(though a degree in creative writing is not a requirement)
with some publications under his/her belt. It also must be someone who has not
yet published a first full-length book, whether poetry or prose. But there is
something more I look for, which isn’t necessarily easy to determine. And that
is: someone who views their art-making as part of larger gesture that goes
beyond wanting to build a self-interested “career.” Rather: someone who, on
some level, views him/herself as invested in a community, whatever that
community may be.
This past October, when I
had the opportunity to hang out with a great co-hort of poets from Northern
California at the third PINTURA:PALABRA workshop in Sacramento, it became clear
who this year’s recipient would be be.
Recipients of
the
John K. Walsh
Residency Fellowship
(formerly the
Letras Latinas Residency Fellowship)
have been:
2008:
2009:
2010:
2011:
2012:
2013:
2014
2015
Joseph Rios
Joseph
Rios was born and raised in Fresno County. His chapbook, Shadowboxing: Poems and Impersonations
is forthcoming from Achiote Press (Berkeley) with an introduction by Willie
Perdomo. In 2013, his full length manuscript of poems was a finalist for a
Willow Books Literature award. His poems have appeared in Codex, Huizache, Cobalt, Bozalta, Poets Responding to
SB1070, and Hector Tobar's blog for Los Angeles Times Books. He studied
literature at UC Berkeley and Fresno City College. He works as a handyman and
mover. He lives in Oakland.
*
And so, Joseph will be spending the month of July at the
Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN, working on his that first book. In his own
words:
“I look at the book as a
complete fight between the speaker in the poems and the poet writing them.
Shadowbox: to fight one's self in the mirror or an opponent of one's
imagination – this practice is at the heart of the work and operates literally
and symbolically throughout. The poems develop and are placed according to the
framework of one continuous bout between these two. I will spend the bulk of my
time at the Anderson Center completing the [final] section.”
*
*
The late John K. Walsh was a
graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and went on to have a distinguished
career at UC Berkeley as a hispanista, and mentored scholars, writers and
translators throughout his time on the Berkeley campus. In his memory, Letras
Latinas has also initiated the John K. Walsh Mentorship Essays, a collaboration
with ORIGINS magazine.
CLICK BELOW to read the first
three:
“Etched in Glass: Remembering
Jack Walsh”
“Second Country”
“Where the Story Begins and Ends:
Practically a Fairy Tale”
Home page (click below):
http://www.originsjournal.com/read-me/
http://www.originsjournal.com/read-me/
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