ANDRÉS MONTOYA POETRY PRIZE: Winner & Honorable Mention(s)!

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is pleased to announce that Jordan Pérez, from Atlanta, GA, is the tenth recipient of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. Named after the late Chicano poet from Fresno, the Prize is a collaboration with University of Notre Dame Press and supports the publication of a first book by a Latinx poet residing in the United States.

Jordan Pérez

The tenth edition of the Prize was judged by Alexandra Lytton Regalado and Sheila Maldonado, with the assistance from preliminary judges Adela Najarro and Ariel Francisco.

Alexandra Lytton Regalado writes:

Jordan Pérez’s are poems of hunger and want; an urgent and haunting voice reveals the everyday of a Latinx life in the South: “two generations / of quiet // sucking each other’s pain / as you might a snakebite.” The lyrical poems of Santa Tarantula follow a dreamlogic embedded with rich details and are guided by revelatory proclamations of atonement and reckoning: “I spent my entire life expecting I’d grow up to be a dead girl.” Pérez assembles her poems as shadowboxes, curious collections of the natural world, bible stories, and family memories. At times Pérez’s quiet observation reminds the reader of Ada Limón, and with the compactness of Louise Gluck, but Pérez stands out, a remarkable and confident voice that understands survival is in the telling: “I refuse to die… having not come / into the fullness of myself. This / is my blood. This, my body. Saying no or yes, / and liking it.”

Sheila Maldonado writes:

“Santa Tarantula is a collection of the many ways all that is female survives. Jordan Pérez lends scientific, lyrical attention to the deepest wounds within families and sexes. This fearless, economical writing haunts from the start, excavates and sings of pain and persistence. Pérez takes on a wide range of contexts, nature and the body, insects, the sea, biblical tales, recent Cuban history, all possible sites of destruction for the feminine. She approaches all of these with particular, devastating clarity, poems like small resurrections. A brave, sparse, wise debut.”

 

Jordan Pérez writes:

 

“I’m thrilled and honored to be the 10th recipient of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize from Letras Latinas for Santa Tarantula. This manuscript has been so present on my heart during the four or so years it took to write, and I want to extend my deepest gratitude to the family members, mentors, and friends for their support and guidance during its formation. 

 

I’m also grateful to Alexandra Lytton Regalado and Sheila Maldonado, the final judges, as well as Adela Najarro and Ariel Francisco, the preliminary readers, for their attention and consideration.

 

It is a true privilege to join this growing list of winners, whose powerful work inspires me to continue walking in the light — and the darkness — that is being a poet. I hope to be a true extension of Montoya’s legacy of advocacy for justice and the uplifting of Latine voices.”

 

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Jordan Pérez is a Cuban-American poet and advocate from Atlanta, Georgia. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from American University, where she worked on the Visiting Writers Series and read for FOLIO. She is currently the Director of Communications for SOSA, a non-profit dedicating to preventing online sex abuse.

 

Jordan’s work has made her a finalist for the 2021 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, the winner for the 2019 Cosmonauts Avenue Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the 2018 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize. Her poetry also appears or is forthcoming in Winter Tangerine, Pilgrimage Press, and elsewhere.

 

Her poetry has earned her acceptance to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the DISQUIET International Literary Program. She has also written for CNN, The Atlantic, and Bustle.

 

You can learn more about Jordan and get in touch with her by visiting https://www.jordanperezpoetry.com.

 

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Alexandra Lytton Regalado and Sheila Maldonado

also designated two finalist manuscripts as

 

HONARABLE MENTION

 

 

Bodypolitic

 

“Aerik Francis’s intimate poems make music of theory and politics centered on the African-LatinXXX-American.”

La Casa Roja

 

“Alonso Llerena invokes indigenous mysteries and revolutionary history, contemplating Peru with stark, imagistic constructions.” 

 

 

Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet based in Denver, Colorado, USA. Aerik is the author of the recently published chapbook BODYELECTRONIC (Trouble Department 2022). Selected by Dorothy Chan as the winner of the 2022 chapbook contest, Aerik's second chapbook MISEDUCATION is forthcoming from New Delta Review in 2023. Aerik is the recipient of poetry fellowships from Canto Mundo and The Watering Hole, as well as a poetry reader for Underblong poetry journal and an event coordinator for Slam Nuba. Aerik's work can be found on their website phaentompoet.com

 

 

Alonso Llerena is a Peruvian writer, visual artist, educator, and MFA candidate at the Bard: Milton Avery  Graduate School of the Arts. His current work, which merges interpretations of historical events and personal history, documents and honors the memory of the Internal Armed Conflict that factured Peru from 1980 through the year 2000. He is a Tin House alumnus and his work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Offing, FENCE, Cream City Review, and elsewhere.

 

 

Peru from 1980 through the year 2000. He is a Tin House alumnus and his work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Offing, FENCE, Cream City Review, and elsewhere.

Darrel Alejandro Holnes wins the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

Darrel Alejandro Holnes

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is pleased to announce that Darrel Alejandro Holnes as the latest recipient of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. Named after the late Chicano poet from Fresno, the Prize is a collaboration with University of Notre Dame Press and supports the publication of a first book by a Latinx poet residing in the United States. The ninth edition of the Prize was judged by John Murillo, with assistance from screeners Yesenilla Montilla and Roberto Carlos Garcia.

Murillo’s award citation reads:

“Darrel Alejandro Holnes is a poet of promise and vision.  And Stepmotherland is a promising and visionary debut.  In this first collection, Holnes displays an impressive range of both subject and sensibility.  Whether working in more traditional lyric, narrative, and lyric-narrative modes, or experimenting with nonce forms derived from theater, geometry, and even dictionary entry formats, Holnes’ poems exhibit a lively imagination and keen intellect.  At turns erotic, often political, and always vulnerable, Stepmotherland  provides the reader a fresh perspective on the myriad ways in which history—whether personal or national—can, by its very nature, blur the lines between witness and participant, between doer and done to.”

A native of Panama and currently based in New York City, Holnes is a previous recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry. His poems have previously appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry Magazine, The Caribbean Writer, Callaloo, Best American Experimental Writing, and elsewhere in print and online. Holnes is a Cave Canem and a CantoMundo fellow. His poetry has also earned him scholarships to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize from Poetry International, and residencies nationwide including at the MacDowell Arts Colony. He is an Assistant Professor at Medgar Evers College and he teaches at New York University.  Find more at darrelholnes.com  

“It is an honor to be the 9^th recipient of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize from Letras Latinas for my book of poems STEPMOTHERLAND. This book is over a decade in the making and it is the product of love and support from my many communities of writers, friends, and family who have supported my development over the years. My thanks to the judge, John Murillo, for selecting my manuscript for this prize from a list of finalists that includes poets I greatly admire, and others whose work I look forward to reading. Thanks to the Prize’s initial screeners, Yesenia Montilla and Roberto Carlos Garcia. And many thanks to the Montoya family and the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame for establishing this prize. It’s exciting for me to join a family of past winners whose work extends the legacy of Andrés Montoya, a poet and an activist whose poetry renowned poet Rigoberto González named as some of “the best to come out of our community.” I hope to represent Montoya's legacy well with STEPMOTHERLAND, a collection of poems about coming of age, coming out, and coming to America.”

Once again, Letras Latinas would like extend its congratulations to the other finalists for the 9th edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize:


Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta is an Afro-Latinx associate professor at City University of New York-BCC, where she teaches creative writing and Latinx literature. She was born in Chicago to a Colombian father and Cuban mother, both community leaders in Logan Square. Dr. Acosta edited the Routledge anthology, Latina Outsiders Remaking Latina Identity. Her work is also in Kweli Journal, Red Fez, The Acentos Review, American Studies Journal, VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, Paterson Literary Review, The Lauryn Hill Reader, Pembroke Magazine, MiPoesias, and forthcoming sci-fi anthology, The Latinx Archive. She is a Macondo Fellow and a Geraldine Dodge Foundation Poet. 

JP Infante is a teacher and writer in New York City. His poetry and prose can be found in PEN America Best Debut Short Stories for 2019, Kweli, The Poetry Project, Acentos Review, Post (blank) mag, Rigorous, Dominican Writers, Ritmo Que Late Anthology, Uptown Collective, Manhattan Times, Bronx Free Press, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext Anthology and elsewhere. He’s been awarded the PEN Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, Bernard L. Einbond Memorial Prize, and the Aaron Hochberg Family Award. He also won DTM magazine’s “Latino Identity in the US” essay contest.

Jasminne Mendez is a poet, performer, playwright, educator, and award winning author. Mendez has had poetry and essays published by or forthcoming in The New England Review, The Acentos Review, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, and others. She is the author of two mixed genre collections Island of Dreams(Floricanto Press, 2013) which won an International Latino Book Award, and Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e: Personal Essays and Poetry(Arte Publico Press, 2018). She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and has received fellowships from Canto Mundo and the Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop among others. She is an MFA graduate of of the Rainier Writer's Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University, and a University of Houston alumni. 

Caridad Moro-Gronlier is the editor of Grabbed: Writers Respond to Sexual Assault forthcoming from Beacon Press in 2020 and an Associate Editor for SWWIM Every Day. She is the author of Visionware (Finishing Line Press). Recent work can be found at The Best American Poetry Blog, Rhino, Go Magazine, Fantastical Florida and others. She is the recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation Grant, a Florida Artist Fellowship and nominee for two Pushcart Prizes, The Best of the Net and a Lambda Literary Award. She teaches Dual Enrollment for Florida International University and is an English Professor for Miami Dade College. She resides in Miami, FL with her wife and son.

Martin Hill Ortiz, a native of Santa Fe, New Mexico, is a professor of Pharmacology at the Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico where he lives with his wife and son. A score of his short stories have appeared in print, anthologies and online journals. His sixty-page poem, Two Mistakes, won the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid poetry award. He has authored four mystery thrillers, including Never Kill A Friend from Ransom Note Press. Along with his scientific background, he has worked in theater, having run a comedy troupe in South Florida.

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Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study of Latinx literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame—with an emphasis on programs that support newer voices, foster a sense of community among writers, and place Latinx writers in community spaces.

We Are Now Open for Submissions.....

John Murillo

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is pleased to announce the Final Judge for the 2020 edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.

A collaboration with University of Notre Dame Press since 2004, the Prize supports the publication of a first book by a Latinx poet residing in the United States.

Our winners, judges, and books, thus far have been:

Sheryl Luna

selected by Robert Vazquez

for Pity the Drowned Horses (2005)

Gabe Gomez

selected by Valerie Martínez

for The Outer Bands (2007)

Paul Martínez Pompa

selected by Martín Espada

for My Kill Adore Him (2009)

Emma Trelles

selected by Silvia Curbelo

for Tropicalia (2011)

Laurie Ann Guerrero

selected by late Francisco X. Alarcón

for A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (2013)

David Campos

selected by Rhina P. Espaillot

for Furious Dusk (2015)

Felicia Zamora

selected by Edwin Torres

for Of Form & Gather (2017)

Heidi Andrea Restrepo Rhodes

selected by Ada Limón

for The Inheritance of Haunting (2019)

Some changes are afoot for this our 9^th edition of the Prize, which honors the legacy of Chicano poet Andrés Montoya.

SUBMIT

We will also, for the first time, be counting on the collaboration of two guest screeners.

 Statement from our Final Judge:

“I am both honored and humbled to sign on as judge of this year’s Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.  At a time when there appears to be an all-out war on brown people in this country—when children are caged, mothers disappeared, and fathers gunned down on the regular, not to mention the daily, less sensational, degradations of living under a white supremacist regime—it is as imperative now as it’s ever been that we make ourselves heard, seen, and felt.  Now more than ever we need our artists, our culture workers, our poets.  To play, then, even a small part in helping usher into the world one of these necessary voices is a privilege.  It is a sacred duty, one I will carry out to the best of my ability and treat with all the seriousness it deserves."

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John Murillo is the author of the poetry collections, Up Jump the Boogie, finalist for both the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Pen Open Book Award, and Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, forthcoming from Four Way Books in the spring of 2020. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Best American Poetry 2017 and 2019 among other venues.  His honors include a Pushcart Prize, the J Howard and Barbara MJ Wood Prize from the Poetry Foundation, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Cave Canem Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing.  He is an assistant professor at Wesleyan University and also teaches in the low residency MFA program at Sierra Nevada College.

Our guest screeners:

Poet, storyteller, and essayist, Roberto Carlos Garcia writes extensively about the Afro-Latinx and Afro-diasporic experience. His second poetry collection, black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric, is available from Willow Books.  Roberto’s first collection, Melancolía, is available from Červená Barva Press. Roberto is founder of the non-profit press Get Fresh Books Publishing and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet & a daughter of immigrants. She received her MFA from Drew University in Poetry and Poetry in Translation. Her first collection, ,The Pink Box, was published by Willow Books & was Longlisted for a PEN award in 2016. She is currently a Co-Director of CantoMundo. She lives in Harlem NY.

 

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We have our judges....

Letras Latinas

is pleased to announce

Ada Limón

and

Carmen Giménez Smith

 as the judges for the next

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize

&

Letras Latinas/ Red Hen Poetry Prize

respectively

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The deadline for both:

January 15, 2018

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Ada Limón

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Carmen Giménez Smith

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For more information about the Prizes
visit Letras Latinas: 

http://latinostudies.nd.edu/institute-initiatives/letras-latinas/

 

LETRAS LATINAS' two national book prizes have deadlines NEXT WEEK!

Post by Francisco Aragón.

Post by Francisco Aragón.

Mark your calendars: JANUARY 15, 2014

Rhina P. Espaillat

to judge the 6th edition 

of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize,

which supports the publication of a first book

by a Latino or Latina poet.

Lorna Dee Cervantes

to judge the 2nd edition

of the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize,

which supports the publication of a second or third book

by a Latino or Latina poet.

March 1, 2013: San Antonio Photo Gallery

Dr. Ferrier, President of A&M San Antonio, 

Carmen Tafolla, Poet Laureat of San Antonio,

Laurie Ann Guerrero, 

winner of the 2012 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize 

el Público (1)

el Público (2)

Poeta firmando libros

Letras Latinas is proud to co-sponsor.....

Richard Montoya @ Notre Dame (2)

Richard Montoya & Carlos Montoya

Richard Montoya's visit to Notre Dame (he arrived Sunday) concluded today. The picture above was taken at the conclusion of his Oral History Project Interview. He is joined by his brother, Carlos, who lives in Chicago. They are standing in the Julian Samora Library at the Institute for Latino Studies and holding, between them, a complete set: the poetry books by the winners of the prize that honors the memory of their cousin, Andrés.

He had a packed three days that included, in addition to his two presentations, visits to various classes on campus, as well as community centers in South Bend, IN. Stay tuned for the interview...

"Untitled" by Malaquias Montoya, inspired by Andrés...

Malaquias Montoya

Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, November 11, 2010

Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize Initiative

Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, gratefully acknowledges Chicano artist Malaquias Montoya, who has created this silkscreen print (Edition 50). The work is inspired by the poetry of his son, Andrés Montoya (1968-1999). It includes lines from, “the escape,” a poem from Andrés Montoya’s award-winning book, the iceworker sings and other poems (Bilingual Press, 1999).

Malaquias Montoya had this say shortly after its creation:

“My son Andrés's poetry has always inspired me especially those poems that reflect the San Joaquin Valley.  Just as in Andrés's work, this print views the Highway 99 as an important symbol not only because it connects so many little towns throughout the valley, but also because it has always given hope to some that they might one day escape life's hardships and despair.  I've always been deeply touched by the protagonist in Andrés's poem "the escape," a man who leaves, even if only in his mind, the love of his life on the 99.”

Proceeds from the sale of this print will go towards two worthy projects: the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, a biennial Letras Latinas initiative which supports the publication of a first book by a Latino or Latina poet; and the publication of a posthumous book of poetry by Andrés Montoya, edited and introduced by Chicano writer, Daniel Chacón. 

More soon....

2 Interviews with Paul Martínez Pompa

This might be as good a time as any to re-visit two interviews with Paul Martínez Pompa, winner of the 3rd edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.

The first is over at the Momotombo Press website, and was conducted by Eduardo C. Corral HERE.

The second is the VIDEO INTERVIEW Paul agreed to for the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. The interview runs just under an hour, but I think it's well worth a look and a listen.

It Won't Be Long

I received an e-mail yesterday: Martín Espada will be sending his award citation on the winner of the third edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize this weekend. It has been a challenging time for his family and Letras Latinas is deeply grateful to our distinguished final judge for the work he has done on behalf of the Prize. Letras Latinas wants to make the announcement with said citation in tow---and do things right. Thank you for your understanding and patience.

FA
Dublin.

Re-visiting Minneapolis: (after Macondo)

Shannon McCarville, the volunteer and events coordiantor at The Loft, sent me a CD with photos she took on May 31, at the second installment of

"The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR."

As a way of continuing to document and archive this Letras Latinas / Guild Complex initiative (with partial funding from The NALAC Fund for the Arts), I've made a selection of the photos below---perhaps in anticipation of our next stop: Richard Hugo House on September 25. The University of Arizona Press has recently updated the tour's web page to include biographical sketches of the Wind Shift poets slated to read in Seattle. Have a peek to see who they are. Thank you, Shannon, for sharing these photos:

Carl Marcum

Carl Marcum

Emmy Pérez

Emmy Pérez

Urayoán Noel

Urayoán Noel

poets take questions
@ Q & A

Carl Marcum, Francisco Aragón, Venessa Fuentes,
Urayoán Noel, Emmy Pérez

***

San Antonio has been a mainstay this summer: I had the immense fortune of participating in NALAC's 8th Annual Leadership Institute---a week-long training session for arts administrators working out of a Latino context. The highlights were many, including inspiring talks by Tomás Ybarra Frausto. The entire faculty, really, were extraordinary. But perhaps most meaningful was being in a room with people from all over the country who were also making a go at being cultural workers. The sense among us was, simply: we're not alone in the work we're trying to do. The comraderie by week's end was palpable.

Then it was off to Chicago to launch the tri-collaboration between The Guild Complex, the Cave Canem Foundation, and Letras Latinas.

And then back to San Antonio for Macondo.

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Finally, stay tuned: LETRAS LATINAS BLOG will be issuing a press release in about ten days to announce the winner of the third edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. The poet has been notified, but we are awaiting the final judge's award citation in order to include it in the announcement.

"I'LL MEET YOU IN THE GROVE" / Utah notes

I've just received word that The Wind Shifts will be going into its second printing, which I think is pretty good considering it's only been out a little over a year. I bring up The Wind Shifts because a few months ago, out of the blue, I got a very nice e-mail from Fresno-based poet, Lee Herrick, just to let me know how much he was enjoying the anthology. Herrick is the founding editor of In the Grove, a literary journal based in California's Central Valley. In the Grove is coming out with a special issue on the late Andrés Montoya. Herrick was recently interviewed about his journal, Andrés Montoya, and the very special event taking place this Thursday in Fresno, to honor Andrés' memory. I love how Herrick relates the origin of his magazine's name. Here's the interview. Herrick is the author of the poetry collection, This Many Miles from Desire, which was profiled in one of Rigoberto González's "shout outs" during his blogging stint at the Poetry Foundation.

And speaking of Andrés Montoya: now is as good a time as any to re-vive, here---"here" being Electronic Poetry Review---one of the very few reviews I've penned: on Andrés' touchstone of a book. And as Martín Espada deliberates with the finalist manuscripts of the third edition of the prize that honors his memory, here is the online piece that tells the story of how the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize came to be, along with profiles of its first two winners. And to close out this section, here is the first Montoya Prize winner reviewing the second Montoya Prize winner, or: one El Paso-native reviewing another El Paso native in, where else, the El Paso Times!

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Poetas y Pintores in Utah and other Logan notes

This was the seventh stop of the tour. As usual, the most gratifying thing about attending the opening reception and events surrounding it, was meeting new friends and seeing old ones. María Meléndez and I couldn't quite pinpoint when we last spent time with Demetria Martínez, but it was around, we thought, four or so years ago when she came to Notre Dame for a Catholic writers conference. On this occasion, I felt honored to share the stage with a her and poet Aleida Rodríguez at a poetry reading that was a part of the O.C. Tanner Symposium, which I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Another highlight was visiting the gravesite of the poet May Swenson, and listening to Aleida Rodríguez read one of her own poems there, to honor this under-appreciated (Swenson) poet. I have to admit that I was not overly familiar with Swenson's life and work. But after my time in Logan, that is going to change: among the new friends I met was poetry scholar, Paul Crumbley. It seems that Crumbley, in part on the occasion of this symposium, decided this semester to dive right in and teach a senior seminar on Latino literature, even though it was not a field he was familiar with. Judging from my extended conversations with him (and one of his students, William), it seems to have been such an enriching experience that his interest in Latino poetry, in particular, has taken wing.
Crumbley is a leading Emily Dickinson scholar and perhaps the person most responsible for bringing renewed attention to the life and work of Swenson. He is author of, Inflections of the Pen: Dash and Voice (on Dickinson), and the co-editor of, Body My House: May Swenson's Work and Life. In short, it did not take much persuasion, on my part, to ask him to consider future collaborations with Latino Poetry Review. As he shared with me: doing close readings of poems is what he most enjoys. Amen to that.