My America: Rigoberto González & Johanny Vázquez Paz
Acclaimed writers Rigoberto González and Johanny Vázquez Paz read their work and discuss poetry and belonging in this installment of the Jean M. and John W. Rowe Program Series. González, the award-winning fiction, nonfiction, poetry and bilingual children’s book author, called Vázquez Paz’s collection I Offer My Heart as a Target a “book of victory over silence and the truest testament to what it means to outlive that which has defeated or deflated many.” This program takes place April 15, 2021 and will be hosted via Zoom. Register for the program here.
The Jeanne M. and John W. Rowe Program Series is presented in conjunction with the AWM’s special exhibit My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today. You can explore this important and timely exhibit virtually at My-America.org. González is also one of the more than 30 writers featured in the exhibit, learn more about him here.
RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ is the author of 17 books of poetry and prose. His awards include the PEN/Voelcker Award in Poetry, the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America, a Lambda Literary Award, The Poetry Center Book Award, Lannan, Guggenheim, NEA, NYFA, and USA Rolón fellowships. He is currently distinguished professor of English and director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.
JOHANNY VÁZQUEZ PAZ is the winner of the 2018 Paz Prize for Poetry given by the National Poetry Series in partnership with the Miami Book Fair. The winning book, I Offer My Heart as a Target / Ofrezco mi corazón como una diana, was chosen by Rigoberto González and published by Akashic Books in 2019. Among her other publications are Sagrada familia (winner of the International Latino Book Award, 2015), Querido voyeur (Ediciones Torremozas, Spain, 2012), and Streetwise Poems / Poemas callejeros (Mayapple Press, Michigan, 2007). She also co-edited the anthology Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press, Chicago, 2001).