Letras
Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute
for Latino Studies, in partnership with the Virginia G. Piper Center for
Creative Writing and the MFA Program at Arizona State University, is pleased to
announce the fourth Letras Latinas
Writers Initiative gathering, which brings together Latino/a writers
enrolled in creative writing programs. The gathering will coincide with the annual Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference at ASU
on February 18-20.
In all, nine writers will be taking
part, representing ASU, Notre Dame, and the University of Minnesota. They are:
Jacqueline Balderrama
(coordinator)
MFA candidate, Arizona State
University
Ernesto L. Abeytia,
MFA candidate, Arizona State
University
Maritsa Leyva Martinez,
MFA candidate, Arizona State
University
María Isabel Alvarez,
MFA candidate, Arizona State
University
Luis Lopez-Maldonado,
MFA candidate, University of Notre
Dame
Kelsey Castaneda,
MFA candidate, University of Notre
Dame
Roy Guzman,
MFA candidate, University of
Minnesota
Marco Pina,
incoming MFA candidate, Arizona
State University
Joel Salcido,
incoming MFA candidate, Arizona
State University
The gathering convened on three
previous occasions: in 2013 and 2014 at the University of Notre Dame—the
Initiative’s institutional founder—and last year at ASU.
“The launch of this initiative was
the result of conversations that had been taking place for years about the need
to create a space for those Latino/a poets and writers who have made the
conscious decision to pursue graduate training in the field, but who often find
themselves isolated in their respective programs. The goal is straightforward:
to create a space, for a few days, where Latino/a writers from different
programs can create community with one another,” said Francisco Aragón,
director of Letras Latinas.
Writers who have experienced these
gatherings, thus far, while enrolled in graduate programs, are:
2013 @ Notre Dame
Lauro Vazquez
(coordinator)
University of Notre Dame
Thade Correa
University of Notre Dame
Lynda Letona
University of Notre Dame
Lauren Espinoza
Arizona State University
Marcelo Hernández Castillo
University of Michigan
*
2014 @ Notre Dame
Lauro Vazquez
(co-coordinator)
University of Notre Dame
Lynda Letona
(co-coordinator)
University of Notre Dame
Suzi F. Garcia
University of Notre Dame
Jonathan Diaz
University of Notre Dame
Elizabeth Acevedo
University of Maryland
Javier Zamora
New York University
Nayelly Barrios
McNeese State University
*
2015 @ ASU
Lauren Espinoza
(coordinator)
Arizona State University
Jacqueline Balderrama
Arizona State University
Ae Hee Lee
University of Notre Dame
Steve Castro
American University
Melisa Garcia
University of New Mexico
The
Letras Latinas Writers Initiative
will be presenting a panel at AWP in Los Angeles this year, featuring last
year’s participants. A previous AWP panel, introducing the initiative, took
place at AWP in Boston a few years ago.
Here
are statements from some of our 2016 stakeholders:
"I am honored to be
facilitating the fourth edition of the Letras Latinas Writers Initiative
gathering. It means a lot to me for my writing, which explores my family
heritage, and for my identity as a writer and a Latina. I had such a powerful
experience last year, I am so looking forward to sharing that with the incoming
participants. I think the expansion of this project speaks to the diversity in
the Latina/o community and that each individual has something to add to that
experience. My fellow ASU colleagues and I are looking forward to meeting
everyone."
—Jacqueline Balderrama, MFA candidate, Arizona State University
*
“Taking part in the
fourth gathering of the Letras Latinas Writers Initiative
gathering translates into an opportunity that many writers of color,
unfortunately, do not have […] As a queer Honduran writer raised in
Allapattah—an impoverished neighborhood in Miami, Florida—very seldom is poetry
seen as a means to secure “nuestro pan de cada día,” as a viable pursuit […] My
MFA advisor, poet Ray Gonzalez, has pushed me as well to consider my work as
part of a broad collective of experiences that add to the richness of our
diverse Latino culture. Having the opportunity to interact with other Latino/a
writers who are also in other MFA programs will mean that I can be in
linguistic trenches with them, and build friendships and connections for
possible collaborations in the future.”
—Roy Guzman, MFA Candidate, University of Minnesota
*
"The Creative Writing
Program at Arizona State University, together with The Virginia G. Piper Center
for Creative Writing, is excited to co-sponsor students under the auspices of Letras
Latinas Writers Initiative for a second year. Part of our mission
has to do with community outreach and serving--and reaching--diverse
communities. Letras Latinas helps us to reach such communities at a
national level, linking them with local constituencies. Upon arrival,
visiting students are invited to attend our Desert Nights Rising Stars
Conference, with its rich array of readings, panels, and workshops, as well as
focused discussions with, for example, Arizona's Poet Laureate Alberto Ríos,
and local events organized especially for them by our indefatigable MFA candidate,
Jacqueline Balderrama. It's a deep honor and great pleasure to welcome
the Letras Latinas Writers Initiative back to ASU!"
—Cynthia Hogue,
director of ASU’s Creative Writing
Program
*
"At the heart of the Virginia
G. Piper Center for Creative Writing is a mission to promote diverse
perspectives from throughout our local and international writing
communities. The Letras Latinas Writers Initiative
gathering has a powerful impact on the educational scope of our annual Desert
Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference, guiding important discussions about
craft, culture, and identity in the arts, as well as connecting and inspiring
our many conference participants--from students in the MFA Creative Writing
program here at ASU, to readers and writers across Arizona and other campuses
and creative communities worldwide."
—Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing
Here is a closer look at
our 2016 participants:
Ernesto L. Abeytia is a Spanish-American poet
residing in Chandler, Arizona. He holds a Master of Arts in English from Saint
Louis University and a Master of Arts in Anglo/North-American Cultural and
Literary Studies from the Autonomous University of Madrid. His critical research
and writing focus on early 20th century literature and poetry, robots, and
superheroes. He is currently working on a collection of poems about his life
and travels in and around the Iberian Peninsula and can be found reading some
of his work online at PBS NewsHour. Ernesto is currently a Teaching
Associate and MFA candidate in Creative Writing, Poetry at Arizona State
University
María Isabel Alvarez is an
MFA Candidate in fiction at Arizona State University. She was born in Guatemala
City, Guatemala where most of her fiction takes place. Her short stories have
appeared or are forthcoming in Arts & Letters, The Gateway Review,
Sakura Review, and Agave Magazine. She is the First-Looks Editor for
Hayden's Ferry Review. Follow her on Twitter: @maria_i_alvarez
Jacqueline Balderrama is an
MFA candidate in poetry at Arizona State University where she teaches and
serves as Poetry Editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review and Iron City
Magazine. She volunteers as a creative writing instructor at Arizona State
Prison in Florence and is involved in the third and fourth chapters of the
Letras Latinas Initiative. Her poems have received the Ina Coolbrith Memorial
Poetry Prize and are forthcoming in Cream City Review and Blackbird.
Kelsey Castaneda is a poet and MFA candidate at the University of Notre
Dame. Enthusiastic about teaching and travel, Kelsey spent the 2014-2015
academic year teaching English in Slovakia through the Fulbright Program. She
volunteers at the Robinson Community Learning Center, leading writing workshops
for young writers in the South Bend community. Kelsey is the copy editor of YIELD
Magazine, a creative photography project produced by the Snite Museum of
Art at Notre Dame. Her current poetry project is a feminist yawp that
experiments with erasure and translation of Vergil’s Aeneid.
Roy G. Guzmán is a
Honduran writer, raised in Miami, and a current MFA student in poetry at the
University of Minnesota. His work has appeared or will appear in The Adroit
Journal, Word Riot, Reservoir, Connotation Press, and Notre
Dame Review. Roy is the poetry editor for Sundog Lit and a blogger
for the MFA Years. Moreover, he is the recipient of a Pushcart prize nomination
and a Gesell Award honorable mention in fiction. Roy will be completing a
writing residency at the Vermont Studio Center this summer. Follow him on
Twitter: @dreamingauze.
Luis Lopez-Maldonado was
born and raised in Orange County, CA. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from
the University of California Riverside, majoring in Creative Writing and Dance.
His work has been seen in The American Poetry Review, Cloudbank, The
Packinghouse Review, Off Channel, and Spillway, among many
others. He also earned a Master of Arts degree in Dance from Florida State
University. He is currently a candidate for the Master of Fine Arts degree in
Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame, where he is a poetry
editorial assistant for the Notre Dame Review and founder of the
male-pod writing workshop in the St. Joseph County Juvenile Justice
Center.
Maritsa Leyva Martinez is an MFA candidate in
fiction at Arizona State University where she will begin teaching in Fall of
2016. In addition, she has recently been selected to serve as International
Editor for Hayden’s Ferry Review. She
is passionate about volunteering and most recently has served as social media
manager for Sweet Dreams, a documentary film about a remarkable group of
Rwandan women who defy the devastation of the genocide to form the country's
first all-female drumming troupe and open the country's first ice cream shop,
with the help of Blue Marble Dreams, a New York based non-profit. Maritsa has
also served as photographer, in Houston, for Blue Marble Dreams new project Bel
Rev, coming soon to Port Au Prince. She asks that if you have a chance please
do check out http://www.bluemarbledreams.org
Joel Salcido was born a Los Angeles cockroach and smuggled
to the Westside of Phoenix, where he translates the poetry of the barrio
pigeons into surrealist prophecies. He is blessed with a beautiful wife and two
sons as well as a cadre of talentedly mad brothers, friends, co-conspirators
and fellow hood radicals. He writes poetry and prose and is working towards a
mastery of arts while building a boat out of editor’s rejection letters to
float back to the moon. He is a member of the Gutta Collective and an incoming
MFA candidate at ASU (poetry).
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