U.S. Poets in Mexico

Suzanne Jill Levin translates José Donoso's The Lizard's Tail

2011-09-23T21:10:00.001-04:00

Available October, 2011: José Donoso's novel, The Lizard’s Tale, published by Northwestern Univ. ed. by Julio Ortega. translated from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine (Faculty 2013, Puebla)!

"In Barcelona, elderly painter Antonio Muñoz-Roa recalls an earlier time when he dropped out of a popular art movement in the fad-crazed city and fled with his cousin/lover Luisa to Dors, “the most remote village in the world,” with its mystical hilltop castle, Calatrava. There he defends its medieval beauty to the locals, who loathe their stone hovels and crave the modernity of apartment living. But the tide is more than he can stem. Friends of friends start coming, and then an endless flood turns Dors into a tourist center with all the “attractions” Muñoz-Roa had feared—crowds, hotels, and shops, leading finally to madness and crime. Donoso, author of 1970’s acclaimed The Obscene Bird of Night, was the Chilean member of the highly touted Latin American Boom, a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s, so it’s not hard to see a personal parallel in this sad, ironic tale of the loss of Spain’s innocence to commercialism. VERDICT Written as a draft in 1973 and not found until after Donoso’s death in 1996, this highly relevant parable about the vulgarization of art is a wonderful read, handily translated by veteran Donoso authority Levine."—Jack Shreve, Allegany College of Maryland, Cumberland

Library Journal review here

Forrest Gander's translations of Alfonso D'Aquino's poems

2011-09-16T22:58:00.001-04:00

Good results for the first USPiM Translation Residency in Coatepec! Forrest Gander's translations of Alfonso D'Aquino's poems will be published by a notable U.S. publishing house in 2013! Very happy for both poets!

(photo: Sheila Lanham)

Bob Holman

2011-09-16T22:54:00.001-04:00

Bob Holman (Faculty, Merida 2009) will be performing with Grace Baldisseri at Bowery Poetry Club on Sat. Sept 16 at 4pm and you're all invited to the book party! He wrote the foreword to her new book "Rhythms of the Heart." It going to be a fantastical matinee of Filipino culture, US poetry and joy! $20

http://www.bowerypoetry.com/

A new videopoem from Rocío Cerón

2011-09-16T22:49:00.000-04:00

Find it here

http://www.chilango.com/cultura/nota/2011/09/14/poeminuto-15

(photo: Lola Fayard)

Jen Hofer reading her translation of a Myriam Moscona poem

2011-09-16T22:38:00.000-04:00

Jen Hofer (Faculty, Tulum 2011) reads from her translation of "Negro marfil / Ivory Black" by Myriam Moscona. Recorded live at the 3rd Annual Les Figues Garden Party in Los Angeles on May 14, 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-3_YDycLjk

José Vicente Anaya and Jerome Rothenberg discuss ethnopoetics

2011-09-16T22:35:00.001-04:00

José Vicente Anaya (Featured reader, Merida 2010) discussed ethnopoetics with Jerome Rothenberg (Faculty, Tulum 2011) September 13th at the Sala Manuel M. Ponce del Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City!

Forrest Gander's newest book collaboration

2011-09-16T22:29:00.000-04:00

With Photographs by Raymond Meeks, Graciela Iturbide, and Lucas Foglia

Forrest Gander’s Core Samples for the World is a magnificent compendium of poetry, photography, and haibun (a Japanese form of essay-poem). Collaborating with three acclaimed photographers, Gander considers tensions between the familiar and foreign. His eloquent new work voices an ethical concern for others, exploring empathic relations in which the world itself is fundamental. Taking us around the globe to China, Mexico, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Chile, Core Samples shows how Gander’s “sharp sense of place has made him the most earthly of our avant-garde, the best geographer of fleshly sites since Olson” (Donald Revell, The Colorado Review).

I don’t think I’ve read a more ambitious poetry book by an American this year.”-- Anis Shivani, Huffington Post

http://www.forrestgander.com/Forrest_Gander/Core_Samples.html

C.D. Wright's collection One With Others wins Lenore Marshall Award!

2011-09-16T22:21:00.002-04:00

Congratulations go out to C.D. Wright for her collection, One With Others winning the Lenore Marshall Award!

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22509

Update on Jerome Rothenberg's many projects

2011-09-16T22:14:00.004-04:00

Please see Jerome Rothenberg's (Lecturer, Tulum 2011) blog for a recent update of his newest numerous publications, translations and other projects!

http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com/2011/09/jerome-rothenberg-some-recent.html

Rocío Cerón reads at The American Legion, Mexico City

2011-09-16T22:11:00.002-04:00

Rocío Cerón (Featured reader, Tulum 2011), Jack Little and others gave a reading at The American Legion, sponsored by Ofi Press in Mexico City on Sept. 14th. Ofi Press is open for other American and Mexican poets to participate in readings in their ongoing series, publications and events!

(photo courtesy Ofi Press)

Ofi Press in Mexico City seeking contributors

2011-09-16T22:08:00.000-04:00

A new literary ezine based in Mexico City is looking to publish both Mexican and American poets. They are also working on a regular reading series in D.F. Contact them!

http://theofipress.webs.com/editor.htm

New American Writing new issue online

2011-09-16T22:03:00.000-04:00

The 29th issue of New American Writing is now available online! Editors: Paul Hoover (faculty Tulum 2011) and Maxine Cheroff.

http://www.newamericanwriting.com/

Carla Faesler interviews Francis Alÿs in BOMB Summer 2011

2011-09-16T21:59:00.001-04:00

Carla Faesler (featured reader Tulum, 2011) interviews artist Francis Alÿs in BOMB Summer 2011

http://bombsite.com/issues/116/articles/5109

Puebla 2012 Postponed

2011-09-16T21:55:00.001-04:00

It is with deep regret that the USPiM Puebla, January 2012 workshops and festival must be postponed until the following year. Our Director recently underwent surgery and a long rehabilitation is expected. Thus, it was decided that our best efforts and enthusiasm could not be sustained sufficiently in order to ensure a successful event in Puebla. We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this postponement may have caused our participants, faculty and competition entrants.

Currently, our entire scheduled faculty and judge for the Merida Fellowship have confirmed for next year.

USPiM Puebla 2013

December 30, 2012 - January 6, 2013

Anselm Berrigan

Nicole Cooley

Tom Sleigh

Lynn Emanuel

Suzanne Jill Levine

Mario Bojórquez
Alí Calderón

Rubén Márquez
Álvaro Solís

Merida Fellowship Judge: Kimiko Hahn

We hope you will join us next year. We promise an exciting week in Puebla!

Tom Sleigh to Judge APR/Honickman First Book Prize

2011-07-17T12:20:00.000-04:00

Puebla, January 2012 faculty poet, Tom Sleigh will judge the 2012 American Poetry Review Honickman First Book Prize. Entry guidelines and more here

Anselm Berrigan interview at The Poetry Foundation

2011-07-03T13:57:00.002-04:00

Awesome sports blogger, Bethlehem Shoals, has conducted an interview with Anselm Berrigan! You can read most of it at The Poetry Foundation

Forrest Gander poem in Lana Turner Journal

2011-07-03T13:44:00.004-04:00

Forrest Gander has a terrific poem published online at the Lana Turner Journal (faculty for our 1st event in Merida, 2009)

A couple of Gander's translations of poems by Mexican poet Alfonso D'Aquino can be found at Here (Gander and D'Aquino participated in the first USPiM sponsored Translation Residency in Coatepec/Xalapa in the summer of 2010).

Other translations of D'Aquinio's work by Gander can be found (by subscription) at S/N New World Poetics

Anselm Berrigan workshop Puebla 2012

2011-06-25T10:28:00.002-04:00

Anselm Berrigan will conduct a week of workshops for our Puebla 2012 event!

Structuring Voice, In Poetry and Prose

Among the questions taken up in this workshop will be how to recognize and make use of the interrelation of material, voice, and structure while writing, editing, and reading. Material from phoneme up to sentence, voice as not entirely inherent & not entirely constructed externally, and structure referring to both the continuous structure of the work in progress, its duration and performance, as well as the structure of the “finished” piece, its surface and layers of depth. The idea is to begin to develop longer poems (with “longer” meaning anywhere from 2 – 200 or more pages, depending on one’s experience and practice), as well as able to take on the question of how time and speed – within the acts of writing, reading, processing, editing, thinking – function on several levels within any writer’s practice. Must speed necessarily be fast?

Anselm Berrigan (Born in Chicago, Illinois 1972) He is the author of six full-length collections of poetry, including Notes on Irrelevance (Wave Books, forthcoming 2011); Free Cell (City Lights, 2009), Some Notes on My Programming (Edge Books, 2006), Zero Star Hotel (Edge Books, 2002) and Integrity & Dramatic Life (Edge Books, 1999). With Alice Notley and Edmund Berrigan he co-edited The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan (University of California Press, 2005), and Selected Poems of Ted Berrigan (University of California Press, 2011). He is currently the Poetry Editor of The Brooklyn Rail, an arts and culture monthly in NYC. As a member of the subpress publishing collective, he has published THE SELECTED POEMS OF STEVE CAREY (2009) and Your Ancient See Through by Hoa Nguyen (2002). Berrigan was the Artistic Director at The Poetry Project at Saint Mark’s Church in New York from 2003-2007. He currently teaches at the Pratt Institute and Wesleyan University and is Co-Chair of Writing at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

Alí Calderón reading in Puebla, January 2012

2011-06-25T09:53:00.014-04:00

We are pleased to announce poet Alí Calderón will be a Featured Reader with our January 2012 Puebla festival.

Alí Calderón (born in Mexico City, 1982) is a poet, essayist and literary critic residing in Puebla. Calderón is the author of the poetry collections, Imago prima (Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, 2005), and Ser en el mundo (UABJO, 2007). He is also the author of the collection of essays, La generatción de los cincuenta (Fondo Editorial Tierra Adentro, 2005), and a co-editor of the poetry anthology, La luz que va dando nombre: 1965-1985, 20 años de la poesía última en México (Secretaría de Cultura de Puebla, 2007). He has participated in numerous academic conferences in Mexico and the United States. He has been included in a number of poetry anthologies, including Más vale sollozar afilando la navaja (Cuiria Ediciones, 2004), Los mejores poemas de 2005 (Joaquín Mortiz/FLM, 2005), and De claro en claro... Poemas sobre el Quijote (Ediciones de Educación y Cultura, México, 2005).

In 2007, Calderón was awarded the Premio Latinoamericano de Poesía Benemérito de América, and competed for the National Ramón López Velarde Poetry Prize in 2004. Calderón was the fist-generation recipient of the Fundación para las Letras Mexicanas grant in the poetry category. In 2003, he was awarded the Premio Interuniversitario de Ensayo del Estado de Puebla. Calderón earned his master's degree in Mexican Literature.

Jonathan Harrington's new chapbook

2011-06-25T09:44:00.005-04:00

Jonathan Harrington, has published a new chapbook, HERE (AQUI) (JK Publishng, 2011) with Spanish translations by Fernando de la Cruz. Fernando was a 2009, 2010 and 2011 USPiM Mexico Award recipient and Jonathan Harrington has helped out as faculty member at large by offering individual consultations and conducting workshops for our Mexico award recipients and for those who do not wish to go on day trips.

Featured Reading: Mario Bojórquez

2011-04-10T22:39:00.005-04:00

USPiM is pleased to announce Mario Bojórquez will be a featured reader at our Puebla, January 2012 event.

Mario Bojórquez (Los Mochis, Sinaloa, 1968) is a notable poet, editor, essayist and translator. His published books of poetry include: Pájaros sueltos (1991, Instituto de Cultura de Baja California-ICBC); Contradanza de pie y de barro (1996, CONACULTA, Tierra Adentro-Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes); Diván deMouraria (1999, a Spanish/Portuguese edition-Ediciones Los Domésticos/Casa Fernando Pessoa, and a 2007 edition by Universidad de Guanajuato); Pretzels (2005, Collección Gláphyros); El deseo postergado (won the Premio Nacional de Poesía Aguascalientes 2007-Lumen/CONACULTA/INBA/ICA).

Bojórquez has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Premio Nacional de Poesía Clemencia Isaura (1995), the Premio Nacional de Poesía Enriqueta Ochoa (1996), the Premio de Poesía Abigael Bohórquez (1996), the Premios Bellas Artes de Literatura, Premio Nacional de Poesía Aguascalientes (2007) and the Premio Nacional de Ensayo Literario José Revueltas (2010). He has been a fellow of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte from 2007 to 2011. Since 2009, Bojórquez has taught in the Poesía del Programa de Jóvenes Creadores at Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes. He studied Hispanic Language and Literature at UNAM Mexico City and currently lives in Cholula, Puebla.

Kimiko Hahn to Judge 2012 Merida Fellowship Award

2011-04-03T12:52:00.018-04:00

USPiM 2012 Mérida Fellowship Award Judge is Kimiko Hahn! The award covers tuition and lodging for the week (value $1,000-$1,200). $25 entry fee, entries postmarked by September 1st, recipient announced September 30th. Click here for entry information

Kimiko Hahn is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Toxic Flora (W.W. Norton, 2010), The Narrow Road to the Interior (2006); The Artist's Daughter (2002); Mosquito and Ant (1999); Volatile (Hanging Loose Press, 1998); and The Unbearable Heart (Kaya, 1995), which received an American Book Award. Other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award; also, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, an Association of Asian American Studies Literature Award, the Shelley Memorial Prize. She received a bachelor’s degree in English and East Asian studies with a certificate in creative writing from the University of Iowa, and a master's degree in Japanese literature from Columbia University. She is a Distinguished Professor in the MFA Program and committed to exploring new pedagogical avenues in this discipline.

Puebla, January 1-8, 2012

2011-04-03T12:50:00.002-04:00

USPiM workshop instructors for Puebla, January 2012 will feature Anselm Berrigan, Nicole Cooley, Lynn Emanuel, Suzanne Jill Levine, Tom Sleigh and readings by Rubén Márquez Máximo and others to be announced. More info here Register by October 1st here

Mary Kasimor receives Fellowship

2010-11-05T20:33:00.007-04:00

Mary Kasimor

Recipient of our "Mérida Fellowship Award" Selected by Judge: Maureen Owen

Maureen remarked, "My final choice was based on the dynamic use of language and boldness of poetics in this particular entry."

Mary Kasimor teaches writing and literature courses at St. Cloud Technical & Community College in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Her poetry has been published in many online and print journals, including Coconut, Gutcult, Volt, How2, Big Bridge and others. She has two published books of poetry, silk string arias (BlazeVoX [books]) and & cruel red (Otoliths, 2010).

Maureen also selected three Finalists:
2nd Place: Maria Lisella
3rd Place: Kathleen Boyle
4th Place: Jared Martin Leising

Finalists receive a $100 reduction in fees if they choose to attend our workshops.

The Mérida Fellowship Award includes fees, tuition, day trips, lodging for the week and a featured reading on the same night as one of our faculty members (an approximate value of between $1,000 and $1,500 depending on where our workshops take place that year). The Fellowship is offered annually and entries are welcome after May 1st.

Guest Workshop with Karen Lepri

2010-10-21T23:56:00.003-04:00

We have added one Guest Workshop with Karen Lepri, who has been working closely with USPiM featured reader, Carla Faesler, since last Spring translating her work from her most recent book and her forthcoming manuscript. Karen is currently a M.F.A. Poetry candidate at Brown University and studies with Forrest Gander.

This may be the first of a future program for us: to offer one workshop per year to be taught by a current M.F.A./Poetry or Literary Translation candidate with a focus on Mexican poetry/Latin American Studies.

Translating Carla Faesler: A Hands-On Workshop on Grasping One Poet’s World

As a poet/translator in conversation with the poet of the “original,” how do you negotiate? How do you decide when to follow your instinct, when to listen to the poet, or when to compromise? Is there such a thing as compromise in “good” poetry? This workshop will lead participants through hands-on activities examining these questions and several poems by Carla Faesler. We’ll look closely at the challenges they pose, some of which are common to Spanish-English translation, such as uses of definite vs. indefinite articles, personal vs. impersonal pronouns, and active vs. passive voice. The workshop will further explore the question of translating aesthetics and translating culture with regard to the surrealist content of Faesler’s work and specific historical and contemporary Mexican cultural references. Participants will collaborate on their own renditions of Faesler’s poems, working both from her original Spanish into English and from my English versions into new Spanish ones, depending on their dominant language. The workshop will be conducted in both English and Spanish.

Paul Hoover joins our Tulum Faculty

2010-08-07T13:03:00.008-04:00

Paul Hoover is the author of twelve books of poetry including: Corazón (bilingual poetry chapbook), translated by María Baranda, Puebla des las Angeles, México (LunArena Press, 2009); Sonnet 56 (Les Figues Press, 2009); Edge and Fold (Apogee Press, 2006); Poems in Spanish (Omnidawn, 2005), which was nominated for the Bay Area Book Award. He is editor of the anthology Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (W. W. Norton, 1994) and, with Maxine Chernoff, the annual literary magazine New American Writing. A founding board member of The Poetry Center at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he is curator of the Friday Night Poetry Series at the deYoung Museum of San Francisco. He is Professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.
http://www.uspoetsinmexico.org/14.html

Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 3 Wins American Book Award

2010-07-27T21:40:00.007-04:00

Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry, edited with commentaries by Jerome Rothenberg (Lecturer January 2011-Tulum) and Jeffrey C. Robinson, has just won an American Book Award, The Before Columbus Foundation! You can find the book at this link:
Univ. of CA Press

Filming completed for Translation Residency

2010-07-25T14:55:00.005-04:00

On July 4th we completed shooting our first Translation Residency film in the series, Two Voices and One Vision (dos voces y una visión) in Coatepec and Xalapa. Poets Alfonso D'Aquino and Forrest Gander participated in the residency and film. Filming took a week, much work and many locations, including: the colonial town of Coatepec, the city of Xalapa, Parque Ecológico de Macuiltepetl in Xalapa, Jardin Botanico Francisco Javier Clavijero in Xalapa, coffee plantations, Museo de Antropología de Xalapa, Xico (a lovely cowboy town in the mountains), and the Texolo waterfalls (magnificent!) Now to the editing table!

Forrest Gander and Alfonso D'Aquino observing a giant Olmec head at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa.

As Landscape by Mark Weiss published by Chax Press

2010-07-25T14:39:00.002-04:00

As Landscape, a book of poems by Mark Weiss (Faculty, Tulum-January 2011), has recently been published by Chax Press. Congratulations go out to him!

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

2010-07-17T21:49:00.011-04:00

Alberto Blanco canceled due to an upcoming retrospective exhibition of 40 years of his poetry publications, art books, paintings and other works scheduled to open February, 2011 at the Athenaeum Library in La Jolla, CA. He must prepare for the project and participate in the installation of the exhibition during January. Thus, due to a busy schedule of teaching commitments through end of 2010, he will not be able to make it to Tulum. We wish him well and hope this important exhibition will travel!

We will go forward with the rest of our scheduled program. Additinally, we have added readings by two wonderful poets from Mexico City: Rocío Cerón and Carla Faesler. We have also added 2 workshops with Jonathan Harrington for those not going on day trips. (Hey, we just roll with the flow....)

Rocío Cerón (photo: Lola Fayard)

Carla Faesler

January 2011 Featured Reading: Luis Cortés Bargalló

2010-05-26T23:46:00.009-04:00

Luis Cortés Bargalló, a poet, translator and notable editor, studied communication science, Mexican songwriting, and music in Mexico City where he currently lives. Luis has published over 7 books of poetry and many translations, including William Carlos Williams' Kora in Hell a translation and essay about Gary Snyder, Anthology. He is the editor of Connecting Lines: New Poetry from Mexico, Lineas Conectados: Nueva poesia de los Estados Unidos (Sarabande Books,Louisville, KY) and also editor of Piedra de serpiente - Poetry and Prose of Baja California (w/Mark Weiss). Bargalló has collaborated on a great number of literary magazines and supplements over the years,including: La Gaceta del Fondo de Cultura Económica, Revista de la Universidadde México, Casa del Tiempo, Hojas, La Jornada Semanal, Trafalgar Square y El Último Vuelo. At the age of 23 he founded and published the magazine, El Zaguán.

USPiM Mexico Scholarships

2010-04-11T22:34:00.011-04:00

2010 Award recipient Ángel Fuentes reading at the

Merida English Language Library - January 2010

Each year, U.S. Poets in Mexico sponsors a full-tuition award program for emerging and established poets residing in the state within Mexico where we will be holding our workshops. For our January 2011 workshops, USPiM will award five scholarships to poets/writers residing in the State of Quintana Roo. These Awards have added greatly to our program with an exchange of ideas and collaborations between poet participants from the U.S. and those from Mexico. Recipients are chosen by members of the local academic community. More information on our Quintana Roo scholarships coming soon!

Award Recipients 2010 - State of Yucatan: Jorge Lara, Rafael Robles, Fernando de la Cruz, Melisa Grisel Bermúdez Torres, Ángel Fuentes, David Ele Loria Araujo and Raúl Ferrera

Award Recipients 2009 - State of Yucatan: Fernando de la Cruz, Christian Núñez Tello, Melisa Grisel Bermúdez Torres, Omar Góngora Guzmán, Raúl Ferrera, José Chapa Valle and Melisa Larios Luna

We have updated our Mexico Scholarships page and you can find more photos here

USPiM/Merida/Yucatan - Youtube

2010-03-25T22:19:00.010-04:00

This photo montage was assembled by the companion of a participant who attended our workshops in January 2009 and 2010. It highlights the beautiful colonial homes and scenes around the city of Merida, our 2009 group trips to Celestun Reserve -10,000 pink flamingos-must go back there, and Uxmal. It also shows our 2010 group visits to Chichen Itza, the Ik'il Ecological Park cenote and Dzibilchaltun (Don Antonio, a Maya shaman performed a ceremony for us) and Hacienda Sotuta de Peon - a henequin plantation (where another Don Antonio explained the daily home life of a Maya family):

Maureen Owen to Judge USPiM's Annual Merida Fellowship Award

2010-03-22T10:19:00.005-04:00

Maureen Owen will judge the USPiM 2011 Mérida Fellowship Award. The award will go to one American poet (over 18 years of age) and includes registration and tuition for the workshop week, two day trips (Tulum & Coba and Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve), Spanish lessons (if desired), lodging in Playa del Carmen for 7 nights and a Featured Reading on the same night as one of our faculty members. Apply HERE

Maureen Owen is the author of ten poetry titles, most recently Erosion’s Pull from Coffee House Press, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award and the Balcones Poetry Prize. Her title American Rush: Selected Poems was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and her work AE (Amelia Earhart) was a recipient of the prestigious Before Columbus American Book Award. Other books include Imaginary Income, Zombie Notes, a brass choir approaches the burial ground, The No-Travels Journal, and Untapped Maps. She has work most recently published in YAWP magazine, Columbia Review, Hanging Loose, Poems from the Women’s Movement, The Library of America, ed. Honor Moore, and Visiting Wallace, Univ. of Iowa Press (eds. Dennis Barone and James Finnegan). Maureen is a recipient of an NEA Writing Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts grant and most recently a Fund for Poetry grant. She currently teaches at Naropa University both on campus and in the low-residency MFA Creative Writing Program and is editor-in-chief of Naropa’s on-line zine not enough night.
Praise for Maureen Owen:
“[Owen] has one of the most highly developed senses of humor of any poet now writing.”—American Book Review

“Astonishing things quietly occur.” —Paul Hoover

January 2011 Tulum Faculty: Jerome Rothenberg

2010-02-28T12:24:00.002-05:00

Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally renowned poet, performance artist, critic and scholar, whose work reverberates well beyond the conventional categories that have often defined academic disciplines. He has published over eighty books, booklets and pamphlets of poetry, several of which have been translated into French, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Flemish, German, Polish, Swedish and Portugese. In addition, he has assembled, edited, and annotated ten enormously germinal anthologies of experimental and traditional poetry and performance, beginning with Technicians of the Sacred in 1968, and has been a leading voice in the approach to creative work and mind that he named "ethnopoetics." He has also acted as editor and co-editor of several notably influential magazines including Some/Thing, Alcheringa, and New Wilderness Letter, and has appeared as a performance poet and artist at many of the most distinguished venues in North and South America and Europe. Rothenberg's poetic work, Poland/1931, has been staged by the Living Theater in New York, and several of his soundplays have been produced by Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Germany. His recent works include a translation of "poems performance pieces proses plays poetics" by Kurt Schwitters (for which he won a PEN Center USA West award for translation), Poems for the Millennium, a two-volume global anthology of the twentieth-century avant-garde, A Book of the Book, a gathering of artworks and essays on the poetics and ethnopoetics of the book and writing, Writing Through, his selected translations and related writings (winner of a PEN American Center award for poetry in translation), and a first-time translation of Picasso's collected poetry, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, & Other Poems. Both Poems for the Millennium and The Lorca Variations won PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles Awards for poetry, and his latest book from New Directions, Triptych, was published in 2007. Publications for 2009 include Poetics & Polemics, a selection of his essays and interviews from 1985 to 2005, and a third volume of Poems for the Millennium, an attempt to bring nineteenth-century Romantic and Postromantic poetry into the present. His full bio is here

Triptych (New Directions, 2007)

January 2011 Tulum Faculty: Diane Wakoski

2010-02-28T12:18:00.002-05:00

Diane Wakoski is an American poet who is associated with the "deep image" poets and the Beats. The "deep image" movement also included Jerome Rothenberg and Robert Kelly and others. She cites William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg as influences and her later work is more personal and conversational in the Williams mode. She has published over forty books of poetry, including Emerald Ice: Selected Poems 1962-1987 (1988) and the four volumes of her The Archaeology of Movies and Books sequence, Argonaut Rose (1998), The Emerald City of Las Vegas (Black Sparrow Press, 1995), Jason the Sailor (Black Sparrow Press, 1993), and Medea the Sorceress (1991) and The Butcher's Apron: New and Selected Poems, Including "Greed: Part 14" (Black Sparrow Press, 2000). A book of essays, Towards a New Poetry was published in 1980. She is best known for an early series of poems collectively known as The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems. She won the prestigious William Carlos Williams award for her book Emerald Ice. Her honors include a Fulbright fellowship and a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. Wakoski teaches creative writing at Michigan State University. Her full bio is here

The Butcher's Apron (Black Sparrow Press, 2000)

January 2011 Tulum Faculty: Mark Weiss

2010-02-28T11:47:00.007-05:00

Mark Weiss is an art dealer, former film maker, psychotherapist and social worker, occasional teacher of writing, literature, film making, history and psychology. Mark has published the following books or chapbooks of poetry: As Landscape (Chax Press, 2010), Different Birds appeared as an e-book (Shearsman Books, 2004). Figures (Chax Press. 2001), A Block-Print by Kuniyoshi (Four Zoas/Nighthouse Press, 1994), Fieldnotes (Junction Press, 1995) and Intimate Wilderness and Letter to Maxine (Heron Press,1974 (New Rivers Press, 1976). Mark is a notable translator and editor of poetry anthologies and his most recent book, The Whole Island (La Isla in peso): Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (Univ. of California Press, 2009) recently received a rave review in The Nation (see our previous blog post). He is also the editor of Across the Line / Al otro lado: The Poetry of Baja California, with Harry Polkinhorn (Junction Press, 2002) (a bi-lingual anthology). Mark has taught at the Columbia University, University of Arizona, and Univ. of California-San Diego and others. His full bio is here

As Landscape, Chax Press, 2009

January 2011 PdC Faculty: Jen Hofer

2010-02-28T11:37:00.004-05:00

Jen Hofer is a Los Angeles-based poet, translator, interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, and urban cyclist. Her most recent books are a series of anti-war-manifesto poems titled one (Palm Press, 2009); sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, a translation from Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes (Counterpath Press and Kenning Editions, 2008); The Route, a collaboration with Patrick Durgin (Atelos, 2008); and lip wolf, a translation of lobo de labio by Laura Solórzano (Action Books, 2007). She teaches at CalArts, Goddard College, and Otis College. Jen is also the editor and translator of Sin puertas visibles: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Mexican Women (Univ. of Pittsburgh Press and Ediciones Sin Nombre, 2003). She works nationally and locally as a social justice interpreter. Her full bio can be found here

one (Palm Press, 2009)

Feliciano Sánchez Chan, a Maya language poet, to read

2010-02-08T23:20:00.008-05:00

Feliciano Sánchez Chan, a Maya language poet, will join us for a reading in Playa del Carmen next year. His c.v. can be found here

Sonnetalia by Marc Nasdor reviewed by Ron Silliman

2010-02-08T21:40:00.003-05:00

Ron Silliman has given Marc Nasdor's book, Sonnetalia (Roof Books 2007) a rave review with much hope and anticipation for Marc's future (and next books!). Marc came down to Merida for the 2009 and 2010 programs, whether as friendly support to the Director of USPiM or for his own benefit -- his inquiring mind and presence has been a great addition to our weeks in Mexico. You can read the review HERE

January 2011 USPiM Faculty Announced

2010-01-31T23:07:00.019-05:00

Faculty for the January 2-9, 2011 Workshops and Festival to be held in Tulum will be:

Jerome Rothenberg
Diane Wakoski
Mark Weiss
Jen Hofer

Featured Guest Readings include:

All faculty
Alberto Blanco
Luis Cortés Bargalló
Feliciano Sánchez Chan (Maya language)
and others

Bios and workshop descriptions coming in March. The USPiM website has been updated.

Maureen Owen to Judge the USPiM 2011 Mérida Fellowship Award

2010-01-31T12:55:00.024-05:00

Maureen Owen will judge the USPiM 2011 Mérida Fellowship Award. The award will go to one American poet (over 18 years of age) and includes registration and tuition for the workshop week, both day trips, Spanish lessons (if desired), and a hotel room in Playa del Carmen for 7 nights. Apply HERE

Maureen Owen is the author of ten poetry titles, most recently Erosion’s Pull from Coffee House Press, a finalist for the Colorado Book Award and the Balcones Poetry Prize. Her title American Rush: Selected Poems was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and her work AE (Amelia Earhart) was a recipient of the prestigious Before Columbus American Book Award. Other books include Imaginary Income, Zombie Notes, a brass choir approaches the burial ground, The No-Travels Journal, and Untapped Maps. She has work most recently published in YAWP magazine, Columbia Review, Hanging Loose, Poems from the Women’s Movement, The library of America, ed. Honor Moore, and Visiting Wallace, Univ. of Iowa Press (eds. Dennis Barone and James Finnegan). Maureen is a recipient of an NEA Writing Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts grant and most recently a Fund for Poetry grant. She currently teaches at Naropa University both on campus and in the low-residency MFA Creative Writing Program and is editor-in-chief of Naropa’s on-line zine not enough night.

Praise for Maureen Owen:

“[Owen] has one of the most highly developed senses of humor of any poet now writing.”—American Book Review

“Astonishing things quietly occur.” —Paul Hoover

Mark Weiss receives rave review in The Nation

2010-01-30T13:12:00.007-05:00

Mark Weiss, upcoming faculty member for our January 2010 workshops in Playa del Carmen, received a rave review from John Palattella in The Nation for his newest anthology: The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (A bilingual anthology) University of California Press, 2009.

John Palattella writes in the February 15, 2010 issue of The Nation: "And there in the distance, nothing./A line of houses one can hardly make out/through the white of snow and sun." These lines from "The Fog," by the Cuban poet Eugenio Florit, could double as a sketch of the view from the north, and from within Cuba itself, of recent Cuban literature. The US embargo has corrupted our view of the island, and Castro's censors have stifled the publication of writing that departs from state-sanctioned optimismo. I found "The Fog" in The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry, edited by Mark Weiss (California; paper $29.95). Not since the 1982 publication of Paul Auster's Random House Book of Twentieth Century French Poetry has a bilingual anthology so effectively broadened the sense of poetic terrain outside the United States and also created a superb collection of foreign poems in English. There is nothing else like it. Weiss presents generous selections of work by fifty-five poets from Cuba and its diaspora; though ostensibly an anthology, The Whole Island is a gathering of individual voices (among them those of the twenty-two translators who contributed to the project). In "On Three Photos of Mella," Francisco de Oraá offers a riposte to Julio Mella, a founder of Cuba's Communist Party and a disapproving superego: "I only know that, deep down, I would have wanted to be let loose in the garden,/and that the garden would grow and become the whole world." Seeing through the fog (what Damaris Calderón calls this "sad business/this playing at being perfect"), Weiss has located the whole island's many imaginary gardens."

Mark's newest book of poems is entitled As Landscape (Chax Press) 2009. Mark is also the editor of a notable anthology of Mexican poetry, entitled Across the Line/Al otro lado: The Poetry of Baja California (a bilingual anthology) with Harry Polkinhorn (Jundtion Press, 2002).

Fernando de la Cruz wins the Primer Premio Regional de Poesía Felipe Carrillo Puerto

2010-01-30T12:21:00.004-05:00

Congratulations go out to Fernando de la Cruz Hererra who recently won Mérida's distinguished Primer Premio Regional de Poesía Felipe Carrillo Puerto prize for his work, "Lo que de ti nos queda". The prize awarded was 20,000 pesos (or approx. $1,500USD). His most recent book, Redentora la voz, was published in 2009. Fernando was a participant in our 2009 and 2010 workshops and was a great help with our 2010 reading series at The Merida English Language Library. Fernando, born and residing in Mérida, teaches at 3 colleges in Merida: Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatan (ESAY), Escuela de Creacion Literaria del Centro Estatal de Bellas Artes and Central College of Merida. He holds a Masters degree from Ohio University in Spanish literature and applied linguistics and currently directs the weekly poetry readings at Cafe Chocolate in Mérida. More about Fernando here:

U.S. Poets in Mexico new blog!

2010-01-29T14:00:00.002-05:00

This will be the new location of our USPiM news as well as former and current participant and faculty news and other articles of interest. Stay tuned as we begin an exciting journey into the world of blogging!