L-R: Francisco Aragon, Roy G. Guzman and Dan Vera
Red Hen Press and Graywolf Press are proud to present Queer Poetics: A Reading & Conversation on Friday, May 29 at 4:00 p.m. Two poets from the Central American diaspora read from their recent books and engage in conversation that touches upon their new books’ queer poetics.
Queer Poetics: A Reading & Conversation focuses on the queer angles and aspects in the work of Francisco and Roy. The event will feature brief readings by both poets, followed by a discussion moderated by Dan Vera, recipient of the Oscar Wilde Award for Poetry and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize, on the aspects, role, language, and significance of queerness in their poetry.
The event will be streamed live on May 29 at 4:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. ET via Facebook.com/redhenpress, redhen.org, and Youtube.com/redhenpressbeats. RSVP now at https://www.facebook.com/events/527261324819469/.
Francisco Aragón is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. A native of San Francisco, California, he holds degrees in Spanish from UC Berkeley and NYU. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1998 after a decade in Spain, Aragón completed graduate degrees in creative writing from UC Davis and the University of Notre Dame. In 2003 he joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies where he established Letras Latinas.
A CantoMundo fellow and a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop, Aragón is the author of three books, Puerta del Sol and Glow of Our Sweat, as well as editor of the anthology, The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry. After Rubén, his third book, was released on May 5 of this year with Red Hen Press. His Tongue a Swath of Sky, his fourth chapbook, was released in 2019. Previous chapbooks include Tertulia, In Praise of Cities, and Light, Yogurt, Strawberry Milk.
His poems and translations have appeared in various print and online journals, as well as numerous anthologies. His work as a translator includes four books by Francisco X. Alarcón, as well as work by Spanish poets Federico García Lorca and Gerardo Diego. More recently, he’s been rendering versions of the Nicaraguan poet, Rubén Darío. He has read from his work widely, including at universities, galleries, and bookstores. He’s been a featured poet at the Split This Rock Poetry Festival as well as the Dodge Poetry Festival.
Aragón spends the fall semester on the Notre Dame campus where he teaches a literature course on Latinx poetry, and spring in Washington, D.C., where he teaches a poetry workshop featuring the work of local and visiting Latinx poets.
Roy G. Guzmán is a Honduran poet whose first collection is now out from Graywolf Press. For bookings or any other matters, please email Roy at roy.g.guzman[at]gmail{dot}com.
Raised in Miami, Florida, Roy is the recipient of a 2019 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2017, they were named a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow. They are also the recipient of a 2017 Minnesota State Arts Board Initiative grant and the 2016 Gesell Award for Excellence in Poetry. Their work has been included in the Best New Poets 2017 anthology, guest-edited by Natalie Diaz, and Best of the Net 2017, guest-edited by Eduardo C. Corral.
In 2016, Roy was the recipient of a Scribe for Human Rights Fellowship, focusing on issues affecting migrant farm workers in Minnesota. That same year, they were chosen to participate in the fourth Letras Latinas Writers Initiative gathering, sponsored by Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, in partnership with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and the MFA Program at Arizona State University. Roy returned to Arizona as a Letras Latinas Scholar in 2018.
Roy also participated in the first Poetry Incubator, sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Crescendo Literary, and was invited to run a workshop during the Incubator’s second year. After the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, their poem “Restored Mural for Orlando” was turned into a chapbook with the help of poet and visual artist, D. Allen, to raise funds for the victims. With poet Miguel M. Morales, Roy edited the anthology Pulse/Pulso: In Remembrance of Orlando, published by Damaged Goods Press.
In 2015, they were awarded a GRPP Graduate Research Fellowship to investigate trauma caused by violence in and migration from Honduras. In 2018, Roy was awarded a second GRPP Graduate Research Fellowship to travel to Honduras for research.
Roy holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, Dartmouth College, the University of Chicago, and the Honors College at Miami Dade College. They currently live in Minneapolis, where they are pursuing a PhD in Cultural Studies (Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society) at the University of Minnesota.
Dan Vera is a writer, editor, watercolorist, and literary historian. The recipient of the Oscar Wilde Award for Poetry and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize, he’s the co-editor of Imaniman: Poets Writing In The Anzaldúan Borderlands (Aunt Lute Books) and author of two books of poetry, Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press) and The Space Between Our Danger and Delight (Beothuk Books). His work is featured by the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and included in college and university curricula, various journals including Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly; and in anthologies including Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, The Traveler’s Vade Mecum, and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South. The CantoMundo and Macondo Writing Fellow has been a featured reader around the country including the Dodge Poetry Festival, the Poetry Foundation, and New York City’s Poets House. The longtime chair of Split This Rock Poetry, he currently serves on the board of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP).
RSVP now at https://www.facebook.com/events/527261324819469/.
Red Hen Press, 1540 Lincoln Avenue, Pasadena, (626) 356-4760 or visit https://redhen.org/.
