Martín Espada

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Martín Espada

Born	1957 (age 56–57) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Occupation	Poet, professor
Nationality	American
Notable work(s)	Imagine the Angels of Bread
Notable award(s)	American Book Award; PEN/Revson Fellowship; Paterson Poetry Prize

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

Life and career

Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was introduced to political activism at an early age by his father, a leader in the Puerto Rican community and the civil rights movement. 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 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.^[2] In 2001, he was named the first Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts.^[3]

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.^[4]

Martín Espada lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife Katherine Gilbert Espada and his son Klemente Gilbert-Espada.

Awards and honours

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

Works

Books of Poetry

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

Books of Essays

The Lover of a Subversive is Also a Subversive: Essays and Commentaries. University of Michigan Press. 2010. ISBN 9780472051472.
Auf der Suche nach La Revolución (Agentur Machtwort, Germany, 2004)
Zapata's Disciple. South End Press. 1998. ISBN 9780896085893.

As editor

His Hands Were Gentle: Selected Lyrics of Víctor Jara (Smokestack, UK, 2012)
El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry. University of Massachusetts Press. 1997. ISBN 9781558491113.
Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination (Curbstone, 1994)

References

External links

Authority control	VIAF: 97801038

Persondata
Name	Espada, Martin
Alternative names
Short description	Peurto Rican poet
Date of birth	1957
Place of birth	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death

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