Martín Espada

Martín Espada
Born	1957 (age 54–55) 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.

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. Espada is the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts.

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.

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

Awards and honours

• Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement, for Poetry, and Alabanza: New and Selected Poems
• Robert Creeley Award
• Antonia Pantoja Award
• Independent Publisher Book Award
• Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
• PEN/Revson Fellowship
• NEA Fellowships.
• Massachusetts Artist's Fellowship
• Paterson Poetry Prize
• United States Artists Fellow Award

Works

• Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (1990).
• City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (1993)
• Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996)
• A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen (2000)
• Alabanza: New and Selected Poems (1982–2002) (2003)
• The Republic of Poetry (W. W. Norton & Company, 2006)
• The Trouble Ball: Poems (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011)

See also

• List of Puerto Rican writers
• List of Famous Puerto Ricans
• Puerto Rican literature

External links

• Works by or about Martín Espada in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• The People Speak at the Internet Movie Database
• Martín Espada Official site
• Martín Espada Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
• Martín Espada at Modern American Poetry
• Academy of American Poets
• Martín Espada reads "The Soldiers in the Garden" from The Republic of Poetry. Audio files
• Martín Espada reads "Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper" from Alabanza. Video

Interviews

• "A Branch on the Tree of Whitman: Martín Espada on the 150th Anniversary of Leaves of Grass. " Quay 1.1 (May–June 2007): 1-12. Carvalho, Edward J
• "A Branch on the Tree of Whitman: Martín Espada on the 150th Anniversary of Leaves of Grass. Whitman's Influence Spec. issue of Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 26.1 (Summer 2008): 23-34. Carvalho, Edward J (Reprint from Quay 1.1)
• "A Branch on the Tree of Whitman: Martín Espada on the 150th Anniversary of Leaves of Grass." MartinEspada.net (Reprint from Quay 1.1).
• "'Taking Back the Street Corner' (Interview with Martín Espada at UMass, 5 Mar. 2008)." Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University. Carvalho, Edward J., and David B. Downing, eds. Spec. issue of Works and Days 51-54, 26-27.1/4 (2008–09): 539-52.
• "The Greatest Poet of the 20th Century in Any Language"--Celebrating Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda: Interview with Martín Espada. Goodman, Amy. Democracy Now.org. 16 July 2004.
• Interview with Martín Espada. FPIF.org (Foreign Policy in Focus). 4 Apr. 2007. Miller, E. Ethelbert.
• "Martín Espada: Poetry and The Burden of History." Ratiner, Steven. Christian Science Monitor (March 6, 1991).