Wednesday, April 16
7:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
La Bruquena, upstairs
2726 W. Division St.

First Class: Celebrating the first full-collections of poetry by two emerging Latino Poets: Rich Villar, author of Comprehending Forever, and Laurie Ann Guerrero, author of A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying. Curated by poet Eduardo Arocho.

This program is co-presented with the Poetry Foundation.

ABOUT THE READERS

Laurie Ann Guerrero was born and raised in the South Side of San Antonio, she received the Academy of American Poets Prize, among others, at Smith College. Winner of the 2012 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, her first full-length collection, A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying, selected by Francisco X. Alarcón, was released by University of Notre Dame Press in 2013. Guerrero’s poetry and critical work have appeared in Huizache, Texas Monthly, Bellevue Review, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Global City Review, Texas Observer, Chicana/Latina Studies, Feminist Studies, and others. Guerrero holds a B.A. in English Language & Literature from Smith College and an MFA in poetry from Drew University. Guerrero’s chapbook, Babies under the Skin (2008), won the Panhandler Publishing Award, chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye. A CantoMundo fellow and member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop, Guerrero’s work has been highlighted in the LA Review of Books, The Poetry Foundation/Harriet Blog, and Poets & Writers Magazine in which she was named one of ten top-emerging poets in 2013. Other honors include fellowships from the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award Foundation and the Artist Foundation of San Antonio. Guerrero has served on the faculty at Palo Alto College, University of the Incarnate Word, University of Texas-El Paso, and Gemini Ink, a community-centered literary arts organization in San Antonio. She where she is a visiting writer at Our Lady of the Lake University.

Rich Villar is a writer originally from Paterson, New Jersey. He directs Acentos, an organization fostering audiences and community around Latino/a literature. He has been quoted on Latino literature and culture by both The New York Times and the Daily News, and his poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Black Renaissance Noire, Hanging Loose, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Sou’wester. His first collection, COMPREHENDING FOREVER, is forthcoming in 2014 from Willow Books.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Eduardo Arocho was born and raised in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood where he currently resides.He is the author of six self-published chapbooks of poetry including: Highway Island  (2008), The 4th Tassel (2006), Poems Behind The Máscara (2002). His latest collection of poetry is Hot Wings (2013). His poems have also been published in Cantologia I: El Amor (Palabra Pura Poets) by Pandora Lobo Estepario Press, Chicago 2013,  El CENTRO JOURNAL, Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, New York, NY, (2001), Power Lines: Anthology by Tia Chucha Press, (2000); and Open Fist: Anthology of Young Illinois Poets by Tia Chucha Press, (1993). A graduate of Spertus College of Nonprofit Management, with a Masters of Science in Human Services Administration, he is currently completing work on his forthcoming collection of poems Nacio Maestro.