Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize: 10th edition

 Letras Latinas

announces jury for the 10^th edition

of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

DEADLINE: March 15, 2022

Submissions portal opens February 1, 2022

SUBMIT HERE

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is pleased to announce a four-person jury for its flagship book prize. Named after the late award-winning Chicano poet from Fresno, the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize supports the publication of a first full-length collection by a Latinx poet residing in the United States.

 

For the first time in the Prize’s history, there will be two final judges, alongside two preliminary judges. They are Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Sheila Maldonado, Ariel Francisco and Adela Najarro, respectively. For more information, see their bios below, as well as statements by the final judges.

 

For the second time, the Prize will once again be administered via Submittable. The portal for submissions is slated to open on February 1, 2022, and the deadline will be on March 15, 2022. Watch this space (Letras Latinas Blog) for the Submittable link, which will take you to the Prize guidelines. As always, there is no reading fee for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.

 

In the meantime, Darrel Alejandro Holnes’ Stepmotherland, winner of the 9^th edition of the Prize and selected by John Murillo, with assistance from Yesenia Montilla and Roberto Carlos Garcia, is set to launch on February 1, 2022 with University of Notre Dame Press.

 

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 On serving as a final judge of the 10^th edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize:

  

Alexandra Lytton Regalado writes:

 “When Letras Latinas invited me to be a judge for the 10^th edition of the Andrés Montoya Prize for Latinx Poetry I was sending out my second manuscript to contests and I know what it’s like to walk that tightrope—when you release your work into the world hoping it will connect with a reader and I know that process can sometimes take a decade (in the case of my first book) or surprisingly (in the case of my second book), a single year. Tienes que ser necia, tweak it and stubbornly keep sending it out. I am a huge fan of past winners of the Andrés Montoya Prize—each has a distinctive and genuine voice—and it has been exciting to see their post-award trajectories so it is an honor to be a part of the selection process. I’m interested in work that searches and leaves doors open. Reading a favorite poem feels like an encounter, a transference of energy. I connect with sincerity and poems that leave me with an increased sense of awareness.”

 

                                                              photo credit: Caroline Lacey

Alexandra Lytton Regalado’s second poetry collection, Relinquenda, winner of the National Poetry Series, is forthcoming from Beacon Press in fall 2022. She is also the author of Matria, winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Alexandra is a CantoMundo fellow, winner of the Coniston Prize, and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The Academy of American Poets, Narrative, Gulf Coast, and Creative Nonfiction among others. Her translations of contemporary Salvadoran poetry will soon appear in Poetry International. Co-founder of Kalina press, Alexandra is author, editor, and/or translator of more than fifteen Central American-themed books.  www.alexandralyttonregalado.com

 

Sheila Maldonado writes:

“I probably did not apply for this prize when I was working on my first book. I was probably intimidated and thought I needed to have a particular voice. I didn’t realize that the prize was relatively new in the poetry world and was just one attempt at addressing invisibility. 

 

Latinx poets have been around so long and it has been such a struggle to be recognized. I struggle with what that really means, to be recognized by who, an academic world that didn’t see us for so long. I went to school for poetry but also feel a part of what poetry is in New York City, so that the city is my true school. I can also feel like an outsider as a Central American in U.S. Latinx communities. I think being involved in this for me is acknowledging that Latinx poetry and art in the U.S. often exists outside of institutions. It is about creating spaces for people long overlooked. We need many of them and this prize is a beginning, not an end all be all. 

 

In the years since my first book was published, I got to know so many Latinx poets, many of them on the list of winners and judges for this prize. They are all generous souls who make beautiful work. Knowing them and their work, I feel truly honored to be asked by Letras Latinas to read a world of people who want to be seen and heard in all their complexity.”

 

                                                      photo credit: Nikki Johnson

Sheila Maldonado is the author of the poetry collections that's what you get (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2021) and one-bedroom solo (Fly by Night Press / A Gathering of the Tribes, 2011). She is a CantoMundo fellow and a Creative Capital awardee as part of desveladas, a visual writing collective. She teaches English for the City University of New York. She was born in Brooklyn, raised in Coney Island, the daughter of Armando and Vilma of El Progreso, Yoro, Honduras. She lives in El Alto Manhattan.

 

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Preliminary judges:

 

Ariel Francisco is the author of Under Capitalism If Your Head Aches They Just Yank Off Your Head (Flowersong Press, 2022), A Sinking Ship is Still a Ship (Burrow Press, 2020) and All My Heroes Are Broke (C&R Press, 2017). A poet and translator born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents and raised in Miami, his work has been published in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, The New York City Ballet, Latino Book Review, and elsewhere. He is Assistant Professor of Poetry at Louisiana State University.

Adela Najarro is the author of three poetry collections: Split Geography, Twice Told Over, and My Childrens, a chapbook that includes teaching resources. With My Childrens she hopes to bring poetry into the classroom so that students can explore creative writing, identity, and what it means to be Latinx in US society. She holds a doctorate in literature and creative writing from Western Michigan University, as well as an M.F.A. from Vermont College, and is widely published in numerous anthologies and literary magazines. More information about Adela can be found at her website: www.adelanajarro.com.