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Notre Dame to host a gathering of
Latin@ poets
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute
for Latino Studies (ILS), in close collaboration with the Creative Writing
Program, is pleased to present on October 28-29 “Angels of the Americlypse: readings and colloquia—new Latin@ poetries
and literary translation,” featuring:
Rosa Alcalá
Carmen Giménez
Smith
Roberto Tejada
Rodrigo
Toscano.
Angels
of the Americlypse, the title of a recent anthology of
new Latin@ writing, provides the context of this mini-conference, whose aim is
to further the dialogue among Latin@ poets seeking to complicate and enrich discussions
in the field. “As the conversation about race
evolves, so do the shifting boundaries and markers of Latinidad, and in the
case of this anthology and many of the most exciting work being written by
Latin@s, aesthetics itself," said Carmen Giménez Smith, co-editor of the volume.
On the mornings of October 28 and 29, students
in Notre Dame’s MFA program will conduct video interviews with the four poets. "This gathering exists at the nexus of politics,
poetics, translation, publishing, scholarship and activism. We're excited to
welcome our accomplished guests into our vibrant community," said Joyelle McSweeney, poet, playwright,
critic and current Director of Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program.
On the afternoons of October 28 and 29
at 2 PM in 110 McKenna Hall the poets will take part in a public panel and
roundtable discussion, respectively. The first, titled “Latino Poetry In
Relation,” will be introduced and moderated by visiting poetry scholar Michael Dowdy, an associate professor
of English at Hunter College (CUNY). The second, titled “The Politics of
Translation,” will be introduced and moderated by Johannes Göransson, poet, translator, and assistant professor of
English in Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program.
The evening of October 28 at 7:30 PM, Alcalá, Giménez Smith, Tejada
and Toscano will give a
collaborative performance of their work in the Eck Auditorium at the Eck
Visitors Center. The event will be LIVE-STREAMED at: http://latinostudies.nd.edu/angels
for a national audience. “This is a first for Letras Latinas,” said Francisco Aragón, faculty member at the
ILS and director of its literary initiative. “We’ve reached out to the Poetry
Foundation in Chicago and the Academy of American Poets in New York, among
others, including the Poetry Center at the University of Arizona—in fact, I
just learned that they will be hosting a viewing party in Tucson. Our hope,
really, is to have the national poetry community “attend” our event via the web
to experience what Notre Dame will be offering that night,” Aragón said. There
will also be a pre-reading reception at 6:15 PM, and the campus bookstore will
be on hand to sell books.
The two-day gathering builds
upon the legacy of a Latino poetry conference that took place on the Notre Dame
campus in the Fall of 2002, organized in large part by professor of English Orlando
Menes, in which poets from the previous generation gave readings and took part
in panel discussions. In reflecting upon this newer wave of writers, Menes, who
is now the Poetry Editor of Notre Dame
Review, said, "These are poets who take estrangement seriously—not
as an attitude, not as a fad, not as an affectation—but as a heartfelt call to
speak their truth in communal fellowship."
Letras Latinas, the literary initiative
at the Institute for Latino Studies, strives to enhance the visibility,
appreciation and study of Latino literature both on and off the campus of the
University of Notre Dame. The initiative emphasizes programs that support newer
voices and foster a sense of community among writers.
The Creative Writing Program at Notre
Dame is a course of study with the flexibility for students to initiate a
variety of literary lives through exposure to a range of aesthetics, a global
literary orientation, course work in historical and contemporary literary
forms, and interaction with visiting authors and scholars.
In addition to the Creative Writing
Program, campus co-sponsors include: the Henkels Lecture Fund at the Institute
for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts; Department of American Studies; Department
of English; the Graduate School; Department of Romance Languages and
Literatures; the José E. Fernández Hispanic Studies Initiative.
*
the poets
Rosa Alcalá is the author of
two books of poetry: Undocumentaries
(2010) and The Lust of Unsentimental
Waters (2012), both from Shearsman Books, as well as two chapbooks: Undocumentary (Dos Press, 2008) and Some Maritime Disasters This Century
(Belladonna Books, 2003). Spit Temple:
The Selected Performances of Cecilia Vicuña (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012),
which Alcalá edited and translated, was runner-up for the 2013 PEN Award for
Poetry in Translation. Alcalá has been a recipient of a National Endowment for
the Arts (NEA) fellowship for literary translation (poetry) for translating
Vicuña. She has also translated the work of Lila Zemborain, Lourdes Vázquez,
and other poets, with translations included in the Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry. She is Associate Professor in
the Department of Creative Writing and Bilingual MFA Program at the University
of Texas at El Paso.
Carmen Gímenez Smith is
the author of four books of poetry: Milk and
Filth (University of Arizona Press, 2013), Goodbye, Flicker (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), The City She Was (Center for Literary
Publishing, 2011) and Odalisque in Pieces
(University of Arizona Press, 2009). She is also the author of: Bring Down the Little Birds (University
of Arizona Press, 2010), a memoir. Her most recent book, Milk and Faith, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle
Award and her memoir was the recipient of a 2011 American Book Award. She was
also the winner of the 2011 Juniper Prize for Poetry, and a 2011-2012
fellowship in creative nonfiction from the Howard Foundation. She is Associate
Professor of English at New Mexico State University’s graduate program in
creative writing, while also serving as the editor-in-chief of the literary
journal Puerto del Sol and the
publisher of Noemi Press.
Roberto Tejada is
the author of three poetry books: Mirrors
for Gold (Krupskaya, 2006), Exposition
Park (Wesleyan University Press, 2010), and Full Foreground (University of
Arizona Press, 2012). He founded and co-edited the journal: Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas.
Tejada has been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
fellowship for literary translation (poetry) for his work with Jose Lezama
Lima. He is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of
English and Creative Writing at the University of Houston. Tejada is also the
author of art histories that include: National
Camera: Photography and Mexico’s Image Environment (University of Minnesota
Press, 2009), and Celia Alvarez Muñoz
(UCLA/CSRC; University of Minnesota Press, 2009). Tejada has published critical
writings on contemporary U.S., Latino, and Latin American artists in: Afterimage, Aperture, Bomb, The Brooklyn Rail, SF Camerawork, and Third Text.
Rodrigo Toscano’s
newest book is: Deck of Deeds
(Counterpath, 2012). His previous book, Collapsible
Poetics Theater (Fence Books, 2008), was a National Poetry Series
selection. Other books of poetry include: To
Leveling Swerve (Krupskaya, 2004), Platform
(Atelos, 2003), The Disparities
(Green Integer, 2002), and Partisans
(O Books, 1999) He was the recipient of a 2005 New York State Fellowship in
Poetry. His poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Against Expression, Diasporic Avant Gardes, Poetic
Voices Without Borders, and Best
American Poetry. Toscano’s Spanish language poetry appears in the anthology
Malditos Latinos, Madlitos Sudacas.
His poetry has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese,
Norwegian, and Catalan. Toscano works for the Labor Institute in conjunction
with the United Steelworkers and the National Institute for Environmental
Health Science.
the
panel & roundtable moderators:
Michael
Dowdy is Associate Professor of English at Hunter College (CUNY),
where he teaches courses in twentieth-century American poetry, Latina/o
literature, and multiethnic literatures of the United States. He has published
on modern and contemporary poetry, with a focus on Latino poetry. Broken Souths: Latina/o Poetic Responses to
Neoliberalism and Globalization, a book-length study of Latino poetry which
puts Latino and Latin American poets into conversation, was published in 2013
by the University of Arizona Press. Dowdy’s critical essays on Latino poetry
have appeared or are forthcoming in MELUS,
College Literature, Appalachian Journal, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies,
Journal of Modern Literature, and in Acknowledged
Legislator: Critical Essays on the Poetry of Martín
Espada, which was published in 2014 by Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press. He is currently working on a project on documentary poetics and editing
a volume in Wesleyan University Press’s
American Poets in the 21st Century series that includes a number
of Latino/a poets.
*
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