A Mighty Blaze: Ruben Quesada in Conversation with Dana Gioia

Online hosted by A Mighty Blaze

Cover of Latinx Poetics: Essays on the art of Poetry, edited by Ruben QuesadaJoin A Mighty Blaze for a discussion followed by live audience Q&A with Dana Gioia and Ruben Quesada.

Ruben Quesada is a poet, translator, and editor. He is the author of Revelations and Next Extinct Mammal and the translator of a collection of selected poems by Luis Cernuda titled Exiled from the Throne of Night. He has served as an editor and coordinator for The Rumpus, Kenyon Review, AGNI, Pleiades, and the National Book Critics Circle board. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry collects personal and academic writing from Latino, Latin American, Latinx, and Luso poets about the nature of poetry and its practice. At the heart of this anthology lies the intersection of history, language, and the human experience. The collection explores the ways in which a people’s history and language are vital to the development of a poet’s imagination and insists that the meaning and value of poetry are necessary to understand the history and future of a people. The Latinx community is not a monolith, and accordingly the poets assembled here vary in style, language, and nationality. The pieces selected expose the depth of existing verse and scholarship by poets and scholars including Brenda Cárdenas, Daniel Borzutzky, Orlando Menes, and over a dozen more.

The essays not only expand the poetic landscape but extend Latinx and Latin American linguistic and geographical boundaries. Writers, educators, and students will find awareness, purpose, and inspiration in this one-of-a-kind anthology.