Nationality American Name Martin Espada | Role Poet | |
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Occupation Poet, professor, translator Notable works Imagine the Angels of Bread Notable awards American Book Award; PEN/Revson Fellowship; Paterson Poetry Prize Education Northeastern University School of Law (1985), University of Wisconsin-Madison Awards American Book Awards, Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada Nominations Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry Books Alabanza: New and Selected, Imagine the Angels of Bread, The Republic of Poetry, The Trouble Ball: Poe, City of Coughing and Dead | ||
Revered poet mart n espada reflects on struggles past present in vivas to those who have failed
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.
Contents
- Revered poet mart n espada reflects on struggles past present in vivas to those who have failed
- Mart n espada on the power behind poetry
- Life and career
- Awards and honours
- Books of poetry
- Books of essays
- As editor
- References
Mart n espada on the power behind poetry
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. In 2001, he was named the first 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 Katherine Gilbert Espada and his son Klemente Gilbert-Espada.
Awards and honours
