Joe Jiménez wins Letras
Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize
Joe Jiménez
Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the
University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, and Red Hen Press, the
Los Angeles area literary press, are pleased to jointly announce Joe Jiménez of
San Antonio, Texas as the winner of the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize—an
initiative which supports the publication of a second or third book by a
Latino/a poet residing in the United States. Noted writer and critic, Rigoberto
González, was the judge.
Joe Jiménez
is the author of, The Possibilities of
Mud (Korima Press, 2014), as well as the chapbook, A Silver Homebody Flicka Illuminates the San Juan Courts at Dawn,
recipient of the 2011 Gertrude Press Poetry Chapbook Prize. In 2012 he was the
recipient of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Poetry Prize. His YA novel, Bloodline, is forthcoming from Arte
Público Press later this spring. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from
Antioch University Los Angeles and is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop
in San Antonio, where he resides and teaches.
News of
Jiménez’s win prompted Poet Laureate of Texas, Laurie Ann Guerrero, to offer
these thoughts on his poetry: “Joe Jiménez’s vulnerabilities
and raw truths mark the fecundity of and fluidity of masculinity. His is the
work of a broken-open, risk-taking documentarian and demands that his reader
enter openhearted as well. I am overjoyed that his work will now be in the
hands of so many and, too, that we get to call him one of our own.”
Jiménez
is the first Chicano/a poet to win the Letras Latinas /Red Hen Poetry Prize.
Founded in 2012, the Prize’s previous winners have been DC-based Cuban American
poet Dan Vera, Salvadoran-born, Los Angeles-based poet, William Archila, and
Argentine-born, New Jersey-based poet Ruth Irupé Sanabria. "The fact that
our winners, so far, come from such varied backgrounds speaks, I think, to the
rich diversity of voices emerging from Latino communities across the United
States," said Francisco Aragón, director of Letras Latinas and faculty member
at Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies. "But I'm also pleased to
have Joe join this list not only because of his fine poetry, but because of the
work he does with youth. He's slated to teach the first ever Macondo Writers
Workshop for youth this summer."
“I am grateful for this opportunity to bring attention to
the part of the world I am from. Deeply, and with each of my bones, I
love South Texas, and these poems, from the alligator gar and the cotton field
rattlesnake, to the armadillo and the half-human owl, push me to question the
loneliness of men, to ask the man I have been about the one I am
becoming. I hope these poems stir thoughts and questions and joys, sadnesses
even, because I believe life is richer when we ask these things of ourselves,”
said Jiménez, after learning his manuscript had been singled out by González.
Red Hen Managing Editor Kate Gale said of the award, “We
are proud of our partnership with Letras Latinas and to be publishing the
groundbreaking work of Joe Jiménez.”
Jiménez’s award-winning manuscript will be published in the
spring of 2019. In the spring of 2017, Ruth Irupé Sanabria’s Beasts Behave in Foreign Land, selected
by Lorna Dee Cervantes, is slated for publication.
Letras Latinas strives to enhance the visibility,
appreciation and study of Latino literature both on and off the campus of the
University of Notre Dame, with an emphasis on programs that support newer
voices and foster a sense of community among writers.
Red Hen Press is committed to publishing works of literary
excellence, supporting diversity , and promoting literacy in our local schools.
We a community of readers and writers who are actively engaged in the essential
human practice known as literature.
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