Robert Vasquez on Philip Levine

“My One Great Teacher”

Of the numerous poets and writers I’ve had the privilege to call my teachers (including Simone Di Piero, Peter Everwine, Ken Fields, Terry Hummer, Cynthia Huntington, Denise Levertov, Jim McMichael, and Michael Ryan on a long-term basis and Joseph Brodsky, Thom Gunn, Galway Kinnell, Carolyn Kizer, Robert Pinsky, and Derek Walcott on a short-term basis—all talented teachers), my one great teacher was Philip Levine. 

Phil’s greatness stems partly from his incredibly demanding criticism in a poetry writing workshop; he understood that because poetry matters, poets should put tremendous demands on their work.  He emphasized to his student poets that they should never settle for what they can do; rather, he spurred generations of ambitious bards to strive for what is always beyond their reach.  And his laser-like criticism was often delivered with the kind of memorable humor that could sting the thin-skinned among us—but the effect was well-intended:  We never forgot what point he was making, for he knew that we learned from our peers’ less than ideal creations.  But if Phil liked something in a poem, he was also quick to praise; if one earned praise from Phil, one walked on clouds for weeks.  His criticism and his irreverent nature spurred me to study with him for five semesters over a number of years (the last time I took his poetry workshop I had already used up all of my repeatable units for his course:  the time I spent in his classroom was my reward).  He was just a blast to be around.

I was also one of several poets of color who considered Phil to be one of their primary mentors:  Leonard Adame, Lawson Inada, Victor Martínez, Andrés Montoya, Luis Omar Salinas, Gary Soto, Ernesto Trejo, and Shirley Williams were among Phil’s undergraduate students at Fresno State.  When I consider Phil’s gift as a teacher—to say nothing of his amazing poetry—and the fact that he spent most of his teaching career at Fresno State (what some consider an Ag Tech at best), I realize just how fortunate we were to study with Phil:  Most people would have to attend a prestigious, world-class university to study with such a teacher.  I know that Phil once applied for a teaching position at a nearby UC campus early in his teaching career, but they decided not to hire him because he didn’t have a Ph.D.—Phil has an M.F.A. from Iowa—that UC campus’ decision was a blessing for students of color at Fresno State.

Robert Vasquez was the inaugural final judge of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. To learn more about him and his work, visit: California Poet.

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Philip Levine Recalls Life at the Factory (News Hour Poetry Series)

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Lines for Hard Times

Philip Levine reads his defiantly hopeful “They Feed They Lion” and “What Work Is” with commentary by Edward Hirsch.

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“What Work Is” (text, and audio of the poet reading):

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“They Feed They Lion” (text, and audio of the poet reading):

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Poetry Foundation biographical sketch of Philip Levine

Letras Latinas Oral History Project (Revisited)

If there's an area I've come to appreciate, in particular, since joining the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), it's preservation. I feel good about our Oral History Project. And yet, it's been on hold in the last year with a backlog of interviews that have yet to post on the ILS website. I need to look into what's going on.

There are, nevertheless, a number of interviews that are available for viewing. They've been mentioned before, but I'm taking a moment to mention them again, and link to the page that has them. The subjects currently available for viewing are:

Brenda Cárdnas

Sandy Florian

Sheryl Luna

Urayoán Noel

Michelle Otero

Paul Martínez Pompa

Barbara Jane Reyes

Lidia Torres

Robert Vasquez

The interviews last anywhere from 45 minutes to 60 minutes.

Have a look see, at your leisure---HERE.

First Person Account: Young Writers Workshop

"I simply had a great time at SIU. It helped me really produce some interesting work, and meet some fantastic people. The faculty were great—all dedicated writers who are simply inspiring. Some of them were incredibly serious or just simply crazy, but nonetheless they were all prophetic in one way or another. The most important part of the SIU writing workshop is the open mic nights every night, where you get the chance to share some work with people you know and who will appreciate it. It also gives you the opportunity to learn more about your fellow peers there at the program. A single poem tells you about the way they grew up and the most important parts of their life. It’s also just great to hear some really good work. Being in an environment where everyone has a strong passion for writing and literature is simply nothing less than awesome. The small close knit environment is intense and intimate. It really gives you space to just let you be who you are, a poet or a fiction writer. "

—Rex Ovalle

current student at Cristo Rey who took part
in the last Young Writers Workshop at SIU

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Thank you to those who placed their orders for Braille for the Heart since the last post!

The proceeds, again, go towards replicating experiences like Rex Ovalle's in the years to come, with the collaboration of Allison Joseph and her workshop, which next year will be five days, extended from four.

Please remember that the principal objective for this pre-distribution phase (while I am in MN and away from the chapbooks) is to compile a snail mail list. So please remember to e-mail me, above all, the address where I will be mailing the chapbook(s). Don't worry about payment just yet.

Keep the orders coming.

For those who are curious about where I am this month, have a peek.

Sales Information/Who is RV, anyway?/The Outer Bands

I just sent Braille for the Heart to the author, of course; Diana Marie Delgado, who penned the Intro; Eduardo C. Corral, who fashioned the blurb; Momotombo Associate Editors, María Meléndez and Richard Yanez; and a distinguished reviewer, for now.

But here's the deal, folks. Good news, less than good news scenario:

I hit the road tomorrow for a pretty good stretch. The good news is that a good chunk of the time I'm away I'll be able to devote to my own writing, something I haven't done in an uninterrupted fashion in a long long time. I got a taste of it in San Antonio at Macondo recently.

The less than good news is that I won't be able to roll up my sleeves and fill out orders for Braille for the Heart till October 1. But I'd like to turn this inconvenience into a positive. In the same fashion that Craig Perez over at Achiote Press takes pre-orders before the chapbook are actually printed, I'd like to do something similiar here.

Again, this is not your ordinary Momotombo Press title:

Ordering one is an opportunity to contribute to an endowment whose first function is to send high school kids in Pilsen (Chicago) to attend Allison Joseph's summer creative writing retreat at SIU Carbondale. This year we sent three students and heard back from one recently who's going to write up a little something to share here, soon.

Things to keep in mind:

---Your $35 tax deductable donation, if I receive the check in 2007, will be matched.

---If you are sure you want to purchase one copy of Braille for the Heart for yourself, consider purchasing another to give as a gift.

---Finally: someone asked if I had Pay Pal. Momotombo Press is too tiny for such a set up. Momotombo Press is part of the Institute for Latino Studies which is part of the University of Notre Dame. In order to make this donation tax deductible, checks need to be made out to:

"University of Notre Dame"

I will deposit these checks in an account that has already been set up for the Letras Latinas Endowment and you will be receiving a letter for your taxes. So, either on the check or somewhere on or inside the envelope, a mailing address will be needed. The checks need to be sent to me. [not made out to me!]

Here's what I'd like to do. Those of you who intend to purchase copies, simply e-mail me your name and mailing address. It's not essential that I receive a check at this time. This can wait till late September/early October. If you want to send it now, though, that's fine. It would be useful to start compiling this info so that when I get back to my office (where the books are), I can immediately start preparing the packages.

I, for my part, will be drafting some sort of e-press release in the coming days for those people who don't read blogs or this blog. Some of you who are reading this will likely get the release as well, and I will ask you to pass it along.

It's really quite simple: if Momotombo Press can sell these 300 numbered copies in the next three months or so, the endowment will get an infusion of $10,500, which my private donor will match----if I can close the sales before year's end.

Okay, I'll stop there.

E-mail me at: faragon@nd.edu
Make the subject of the e-mail: "Braille for the Heart"

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It occurred to me that it's entirely possible that people who have an interest in Chicano/Latino poetry may not actually know who Robert Vasquez is. He doesn't enjoy the visibility of, say, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Martín Espada, or Gary Soto, to name three of our principal bards. Robert Vasquez belongs to their generation, nevertheless. He has not written and published as much poetry as the aforementioned Latino/a luminaries. But he is not an inferior poet.

So, for the record, here's the bio that appears in Braille for the Heart. It speaks for itself:

Robert Vasquez was born and raised in California's Central Valley. He was educated at Fresno State University (BA in English), the University of California at Irvine (MFA in Poetry), and Stanford University, where he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. His book, At the Rainbow (University of New Mexico Press, 1995), was a finalist in the AWP Award Series in Poetry, the Agnes Lynch Starret Award competition, and the National Poetry Series competition. He's won three Academcy of American Poets prizes, three National Society of Arts & Letters awards, a National Writers Union award, and the San Francisco Foundation's James D. Phelan award.

His poetry has been published in various periodicals, including The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The Missouri Review, Notre Dame Review, Parnassas: Poetry in Review, Ploughshares, and The Village Voice, as well as several anthologies, including After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties (David R. Godine), The Atomic Bomb (Nextet Books), Atomic Ghosts: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age (Coffee House Press), California the Beautiful (Via Books) Highway 99 (Heyday Books), How Much Earth (Heyday Books), Piecework: 19 Fresno Poets (Silver Skates), Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California (Heyday Books), and Writing Home: Award-Winning Literature from the New West (Heyday Books).

Vasquez was the inaugural judge of the national first-book competition, the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize [won by Sheryl Luna for Pity the Drowned Horses], sponsored by Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Vasquez has taught creative writing at Western Michigan University and at the University of California campuses at Irvine, Santa Cruz, and Davis. He currently teaches at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA.

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And if this weren't enough: I got news yesterday from University of Notre Dame Press that The Outer Bands by Gabriel Gomez, winner of the second edition of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, is due to arrive this week! September is the the official publication date. Gomez and judge Valerie Martínez are slated to read at Notre Dame at the end of October.

BRAILLE FOR THE HEART has arrived

"I first encountered Robert Vasquez's work in 2003 when I opened his debut book of poetry, At the Rainbow (University of New Mexico Press, 1995). In it he portrayed California's Central Valley as both haunting and haunted---a place where "children fell throughout the night and bore the sad face of Jesus" ("Brothers"), while the dead emerged into the hollow evenings "the way clouds of insects lift from long grass" ("Belief"). These images resonated with me, evoking my own conflicted relationship with an incarcerated brother. A native Californian myself, I had also grown up with the understanding that the California with which I most identified (the San Gabriel Valley) was not palm trees and beaches, but barrios where people lined up for cheese and butter while Monte Carlos blasted Earth Wind & Fire into unemployed afternoons. It was a collection of neighborhoods anchored by gang culture that seemed, at the time, antithetical to poetry.

But when I discovered At the Rainbow, I realized...[...]"

---Diana Marie Delgado

from her Introduction to Braille for the Heart

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One of the great pleasures of working on this Momotombo Press title was counting on the collaboration of Chicana poet Diana Marie Delgado. I think I met her at the AWP conference in Chicago a few years ago. I also remember learning that she admired Robert Vasquez's poetry. When Momotombo Press decided it was going to publish a chapbook of his work, Delgado came to mind as someone to introduce the volume, which---as we can see---she has generously done.

No less significant is Chicano poet Eduardo C. Corral's blurb on the back. I thought this would be an occasion where a more established voice would be introduced by a younger generation of poets, for a change. I mention both Corral and Delgado in my "Editor's Note." But I also say the following:

" [...] What distinguishes this title is that Robert Vasquez graciously consented for this limited edition volume to serve as a fundraiser for Letras Latinas---specifically: to raise money in order to start an endowment whose first beneficiary will be the Letras Latinas Young Writers Initiative. It is a partnership between the Young Writers Workshop directed by Allison Joseph at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago, a school that primarily serves the Mexican community in Pilsen. [...]"

Here is the situation:

a private donor who was especially interested in the Letras Latinas Young Writers Initiative has generously pledged to match the money raised in 2007 (up to $25,000) to start a modest endowment that will fund, first, scholarships for Cristo Rey students to attend a summer writing workshop. Among those who generously donated to this effort in the campaign's first phase were writers Helena María Viramontes and Alex Espinoza.

Braille for the Heart, of which there are only 300 numbered copies for sale, is a way for individuals to make a modest ($35) tax deductible donation to a worthy cause and receive, in the process, what will surely be a collector's item. And again: donations that are made in the next three months or so will be matched, dollar for dollar, by a private donor.

Of course, it is always possible that Braille for the Heart will sell out sooner, which is my hope.
By the end of this week, I will outline how the sale of this special Momotombo Press title will proceed. My apologies for the longer than normal period between this and the last post. The books arrived yesterday.

FA/DC

Robert Vasquez

As with Diana Marie Delgado (who has written a stellar introduction) and Eduardo C. Corral (who has contributed a gem of a blurb), the work of Robert Vasquez has always been a touchstone for me. In my editor's note to Braille for the Heart, I talk about first encountering his poems in an anthology edited by the late Ernesto Trejo and Jon Vineberg. The volume was called Piecework: 19 Fresno Poets and was published in the mid-eighties by Gary Soto. I remember reading in his biographical sketch that he was about to start an MFA at UC Irvine.

He went on to become a Stegner Fellow at Stanford and eventually published one of the most underappreciated books in Chicano/Latino poetry, let alone American poetry: At the Rainbow (University of New Mexico Press, 1995). It belongs right up there with Elements of San Joaquin and Emplumada. I discovered it in the poetry room at City Lights Books in San Francisco shortly after it was published while I was home for a visit one Christmas. I bought the book, took it back to Spain, and read it---again and again.

When I moved back to California from Spain, I found myself at UC Davis (1998-2000) pursuing an MA in English. Among the bonuses of being on the Davis campus was finally getting to spend some extended time with Francisco X. Alarcón (I'd only known him as his distant translator), who taught in the Spanish Department. And then the following happened: somehow I found out that there was going to be the possibility of inviting a visiting poet for a term in the winter of 2000. The first name that came to mind---for me anyway---was Robert Vasquez's. He was someone whose work I'd been admiring for years and years, but who I'd never met. So I brought his work to the attention of the Director of the program. He liked it, and suggested that, as a first step, we invite him to give a reading. We did, he gave a reading, he met the Chair, and the following winter he came and taught two workshops: one graduate and one undergraduate.

As I've said in private to a number of people, it was one of those cases where a writer whose work one really admires also happens to be a very nice human being. He was, and is, also well and widely read where contemporary American poetry is concerned. Once, during our workshop, we were discussing a passage of a poem that didn't seem to be working and Robert encouraged the author to have a look at Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room" and then began to recite from memory the passage he had in mind. When he gave his reading at UC Davis the previous winter, he opened his reading by re-citing, also from memory, a favorite poem of his by Richard Hugo.

In short, it was a privilege to have him on campus for those ten weeks. It was primarily because of this experience, and for the admiration that I had for his work, that I chose him to be the inaugural judge of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. It also helped that, like Andrés, Robert grew up in Fresno, and still made (and makes) the California Central Valley his home.

I've been talking to Robert for the last few years about doing a chapbook of his work. He's the first to admit that he's a slow writer and it seemed to me that a chapbook would be a nice intermediate step before completing what we many of us hope will be a another book---soon.

But there is another reason why this Momotombo Press title is special.

Stay tuned.

THE HOME STRETCH.....

.....as in:

the next Momotombo Press title is at the printer's.


And what a special one it is!


Stay tuned.