Many thanks to the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and to Senator Mark, for the honor.
Pa'lante,
M.
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Martín Espada
@mespadapoet
Official Twitter account of the National Book Award-winning poet, essayist, translator, and activist Martín Espada.
martinespada.netJoined March 2020
Martín Espada’s Tweets
The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, and young adult literature written, illustrated, or translated by current Commonwealth residents. The ceremony recognized authors published between 2019-2021.
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Last Wednesday, January 19th, I was honored to receive a Massachusetts Book Award for FLOATERS. Pictured with me at the ceremony at the State House in Boston is State Senator Paul Mark, who presented the award and read the citation, after which I read a couple of poems.
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He introduced me onstage in May, 2018 when I received the John Brown Spirit of Freedom Award at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site in Lake Placid, NY. It was one of my proudest moments, the torch passed on.
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He was a gregarious character and a great conversationalist. He hiked the Himalayas. He seemed utterly indestructible, until he wasn't.
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...at a benefit for sanctuary. He was always warm and generous with me, both in person and in his voluminous correspondence, no matter where he was in the world at the time, no matter when I needed to hear from him.
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lakeplacidnews.com/news/local-new
My friend Russell Banks has died.
Russell and I became friends in 1999, when he and I were judges for the Bellwether Prize, a fiction award funded by Barbara Kingsolver. We spent the better part of a week in Tucson, reading with Barbara...
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Our Winter issue is available now, featuring essays from and Kate Zambreno, photography by , fiction by , , and , poetry by and Lisa Russ Sparr, and more: vqronline.org/issues/98/4/wi
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This is one of four new poems in VQR. Many thanks to poetry editor Gregory Pardlo.
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December 31, 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of Roberto Clemente's death. I was fifteen.
In the Winter issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, online now, I have a poem called "Big Bird Died for Your Sins," that recalls the death of Clemente--and a confrontation.
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"Sabotage and subversion, then, are this book’s objectives. Go, my book, and help destroy the world as it is."
-Russell Banks, CONTINENTAL DRIFT
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"Good cheer and mournfulness over lives other than our own, even wholly invented lives — no, especially wholly invented lives — deprive the world as it is of some of the greed it needs to continue to be itself..."
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The poem also speaks to the themes of restoration and return, redemption and resurrection—for the island, for myself, and for him.
I am, as ever, proud to be Frank’s son. El hijo de Frank.
Frank Espada: ¡Presente!
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The poem evolved from my practice of talking to his ashes in a box, as if I could communicate the devastation in our family’s hometown to him, as if he could hear me speaking from one realm to another.
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His mother was born in Utuado; his grandfather was the mayor.
Utuado is the "cuna," or cradle, of our family. When Hurricane María destroyed Puerto Rico, Jon Lee Anderson wrote in The New Yorker that Utuado had "become a byword for the island's devastation."
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My father, photographer and activist Francisco Luis (Frank) Espada was born on this day ninety-two years ago in Utuado, Puerto Rico.
My father died in February 2014. I wrote "Letter to My Father" in October 2017.
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My last in-person reading this fall is happening later this afternoon at the Writers House, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA. 4pm.
See you there...
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The poem recounts a tale featuring legendary legal services attorney Jay Rose, a tenant lawyer-turned-magician (me), some pastry swans, a few inappropriate Polaroids, and a table full of Boston Brahmins at a fundraising luncheon, as Jay and I made a pitch some thirty years ago.
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My poem, "Your Card is the King of Rats," is online now at The New Yorker, along with an audio clip of my reading. The poem also appears in today's print edition (dated November 14th).
newyorker.com/magazine/2022/
Many thanks to poetry editors Kevin Young and Hannah Aizenman.
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I had a chat this morning with Monte Belmonte on WRSI 93.9FM in Western Mass. I read two poems and we talked up the Brattleboro Literary Festival, where I'll be reading tomorrow, October 15th, 11:30am, at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro, VT.
Enjoy,
M.
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Honored to see my poem "The Wasps" appear in the latest along with work by , , , , , , Emma Bolden, Adam Day, Brandon Krieg, Ted Kooser, and many others. Thank you, !
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I did an hour-long interview with Indigo Radio at WVEW-FM, in which we discussed the festival, Puerto Rico, political art and activism, my father Frank Espada, and teaching. Listen to the replay at the link in the comment section:
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I'm reading from FLOATERS at the Brattleboro Literary Festival in Vermont, , with my dear friend and fellow poet Doug Anderson, this coming Saturday, October 15th at 11:30am. We'll be at Epsilon Spires, 190 Main Street, in Brattleboro.
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We should support the creation of a self-sustaining, independent form of energy, not subject to colonial mismanagement or methodologies.
Go to casapueblo.org, navigate to the donate button, and give what you can to support energy independence on the island.
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Arturo Massol, Casa Pueblo’s director, along with his father, co-founder Alexis Massol, raised the flag to show what is possible in the face of colonial neglect. Their goal is to transform energy production into a homegrown, sustainable resource for Puerto Rico.
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In keeping with Casa Pueblo's tradition of arts activism, the flag made the rounds in the New York Puerto Rican community of artists and writers, pictured above. That's me, backstage at the Brooklyn Book Festival last Sunday.
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When Hurricanes Maria and Fiona struck Puerto Rico, leaving the island in darkness, the lights of Casa Pueblo–an activist organization dedicated to preserving Puerto Rico’s ecology–stayed on, thanks to its solar power project in the mountains of Adjuntas.
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The flag in these photos represents a movement toward energy security for Puerto Rico.
raised it two days after Hurricane Fiona made landfall on the island, on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, while the island was still in the dark.
Read on...
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Our latest with
He will be reading at the Oct 15th 1130am at Epsilon Spires in Brattleboro.
Listen to Martín Espada - In the Studio by IndigoRadio on #SoundCloud
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This event is in person, in Brooklyn, where I was born 65 years ago. I hope to see you all there.
-M.
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NBF Presents: An Afternoon With the National Book Awards, is hosted by and its Executive Director, Ruth Dickey.
Directly afterwards, look for me at the National Book Foundation festival table (Signing Table C), where I'll be signing copies of FLOATERS.
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Tomorrow, I will be participating in a short reading followed by a moderated conversation with Katie Kimura and Natasha Wimmer, at .
It starts at 2pm, inside the (dry) St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church, 157 Montague Street.
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Gratitude to the community, faculty, and students of Academy, for sharing time with me on campus today, and for allowing me to share some poetry with them.
Abrazos a mis compañeros, Matt Miller and , for hosting me.
Gracias a todos--
-M.
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Come see us there on Thursday at noon, or register at either the QR code or CSMD's website:
csmd.edu/calendar/2022/
Abrazos,
M.
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IMPORTANT! CHANGE OF VENUE.
In-person registrations for this Thursday’s event at the College of Southern Maryland have outpaced the limits of the original on-campus venue.
The flyer has been updated with the new location: BI-113, in the B Building.
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Read "Alabanza" at the Poetry Foundation:
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Twenty-one years ago today, among 2753 dead in NYC, 43 members of HERE Local 100, working at the Windows on the World restaurant, lost their lives in the attack on the World Trade Center. Most were immigrants, many undocumented.
The word “Alabanza” means “praise” in Spanish.
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As I said to Bill Moyers in 2013, Howard Zinn was the most decent, most generous human being I have ever known. I wrote a poem for him called "Castles for Laborers and Ballgames on the Radio," which I read on Bill's show, and which I will read tomorrow.
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