Martín Espada

Martín Espada (born 1957) is a Puerto Rican-American poet,[1][2] and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches poetry. Puerto Rico has frequently been featured as a theme in his poems.[3]

Martín Espada
Born (1957-08-07) 7 August 1957
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Occupation
  • Poet
  • professor
  • translator
NationalityAmerican
Notable worksImagine the Angels of Bread
Notable awardsNational Book Award; American Book Award; PEN/Revson Fellowship; Paterson Poetry Prize

Life and career

Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was introduced to political activism at an early age by his father, Frank Espada, a leader in the Puerto Rican community and the civil rights movement.[4] Espada received a B.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a J.D. from Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts). For many years, he worked as a tenant lawyer[1] and a supervisor of a legal services program. In 1982, Espada published his first book of political poems, The Immigrant Iceboy's Bolero, featuring photography by his father. This was followed by Trumpets from the Islands of their Eviction (1987) and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands.[5] In 2001, he was named the first Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts.[6]In 2018, Espada received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, a lifetime achievement award given by the Poetry Foundation to a living U.S. poet that carries a $100,000 prize. Espada was the first Latino recipient of the honor.[7]

About his first and subsequent visits to meet family in Puerto Rico, Espada said it was "absolutely transformative", an "absolute revelation", "a process of self-discovery", and that "going there affirms you have a history". His poem "Coca Cola and Coco Frio" is about that.[8]

In 2009, Espada performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.[9]

In 2021, Espada won the National Book Award for Poetry for his poem "Floaters" about two migrants, Oscar and his daughter Valeria, who drowned crossing the Rio Grande at the U.S. Border.[10][11]

Espada is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst,[12] and lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Awards and honours
  • Massachusetts Artists Foundation Fellowship in Poetry, 1984
  • National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1986
  • PEN/Revson Foundation Fellowship in Poetry, 1989
  • Paterson Poetry Prize, 1991
  • National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, 1992
  • Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant, 1996
  • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, 1997
  • Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, 1997
  • Gustavus Myers Center Outstanding Book Award, 1998
  • Pushcart Prize, 1999
  • Independent Publisher Book Award, 1999
  • Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts, 2001
  • Antonia Pantoja Award, 2003
  • American Library Association Notable Book, 2004
  • Robert Creeley Award, 2004[13]
  • Charity Randall Citation, 2005
  • John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2006
  • Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2007
  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Books, 2007
  • Library Journal Best Poetry Books, 2007
  • Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, 2007
  • Premio Fronterizo, 2007
  • National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, 2008
  • USA Simon Fellowship, 2010
  • Massachusetts Book Award, 2012
  • Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, 2012
  • International Latino Book Award, 2012
  • Walt Whitman Birthplace Poet in Residence, 2012
  • Busboys and Poets Award, 2014
  • Academy of American Poets Fellowship, 2018
  • Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, 2018[14]
  • National Book Award for Poetry, 2021[15][16]

Works

Books of poetry
  • The Immigrant Iceboy's Bolero, Waterfront Press, 1982, ISBN 9780943862330
  • Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction, Bilingual Press, 1987, ISBN 9780916950729
  • Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands, Curbstone Press, 1990, ISBN 9780915306954
  • City of Coughing and Dead Radiators, W.W. Norton, 1993, ISBN 9780393312171
  • Imagine the Angels of Bread, Norton, 1996, ISBN 9780393039160
  • A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen, Norton, 2000, ISBN 9780393048889
  • Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 (W.W. Norton, 2003 US, 2004 UK)
  • The Republic of Poetry. W.W. Norton. 2006. ISBN 9780393069709.
  • La República de la Poesía (Mago Editores, Chile, 2007)
  • Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas, Smokestack Books, 2008, ISBN 9780955402814
  • La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig (Terranova Editores, Puerto Rico, 2008)
  • Soldados en el Jardín (El Gaviero Ediciones, Spain, 2009)
  • The Trouble Ball. W.W. Norton. 2011. ISBN 9780393080032. U.S.;, 2012, ISBN 9780393343564, UK
  • Vivas to Those Who Have Failed. W.W. Norton. 2016. ISBN 9780393249033.
  • Floaters : Poems, W.W.Norton, 2021, ISBN 9780393541038

Books of essays

As editor

In anthology
  • Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, University of Georgia Press, 2018, ISBN 9780820353159
  • Seeds of Fire: Contemporary Poetry from the Other U. S. A. Smokestack Books. ISBN 978-0955402821

See also

References
  1. "El Andar Magazine". El Andar Magazine. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2022. Martín's own years of growing up in the 60s in the projects of East New York and, later, in the seemingly soft suburbs of Long Island, where he was kicked around for being Puerto Rican.
  2. "Martín Espada Receives Inaugural Letras Boricuas Fellowship". College of Humanities & Fine Arts. November 18, 2021. Archived from the original on September 9, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  3. "Academy of American Poets profile". Archived from the original on 2009-11-19. Retrieved 2010-03-27.
  4. "Acclaimed Poet and Professor Martín Espada to Deliver Reading on May 2". UMass Amherst. April 20, 2022. Archived from the original on September 9, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  5. "Poetry Foundation profile". Archived from the original on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2010-05-13.
  6. "Bill Moyers website". Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
  7. "Martín Espada awarded 2018 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize". poetryfoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  8. "Poet Martin Espada". Fresh Air Archive: Interviews with Terry Gross. November 16, 1993. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  9. The People Speak Archived 2010-07-13 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ""Floaters": Martín Espada Pays Tribute to Salvadoran Father & Daughter Who Drowned at U.S. Border". YouTube. January 16, 2020. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  11. "Poetry inspired by a viral photo of drowned migrants wins the National Book Award". NPR.org. November 18, 2021. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  12. "Martín Espada uses poetry as a form of advocacy". News. April 8, 2022. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
  13. "Robert Creeley Foundation » Award – Robert Creeley Award". robertcreeleyfoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2017-08-03. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  14. "Martín Espada awarded 2018 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize". poetryfoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2018-05-03.
  15. "National Book Awards 2021". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  16. Andrews, Meredith (August 30, 2022). "National Book Foundation Announces 2022 Fall Season of NBF Presents". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
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