Ruben Quesada

Ruben Quesada, Ph.D., is an American poet. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.[1] Ruben was raised by Costa Rican immigrant parents. He is the author of the poetry collections Revelations and Next Extinct Mammal.

Ruben Quesada, AWP Conference 2017

After receiving a Ph.D. in English, Ruben moved to Illinois in 2012. Soon after, with the mentorship of founding members from Canto Mundo Poetry, Macondo Writers, and Letras Latinas, Ruben founded the Latinx Writers Caucus at the Association of Writing & Writing Programs (AWP).

In 2015, Ruben moved to Chicago and launched the Logan’s Run Readings series, the nation’s only Latinx literary salon. Poets and authors featured include Daniel Borzutzky, Juan Martinez, Joanne Diaz, Erika L. Sánchez, David Campos, Diana Pando, Carlo Matos, Amy Sayre Baptista, Wendy C. Ortiz, Mónica A. Jiménez, and Diego Báez.[2]

In January 2021, Ruben launched Mercy Street Readings, a live literary broadcast featuring contemporary poets and writers. He currently serves as an editorial advisor for JackLeg Press and he teaches as an Associate Teaching Fellow at the Attic Institute and for the UCLA Writers’ Program.

Career

Quesada earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts at UC Riverside. He then went on to earn a Doctorate in English (Poetry and Poetics) at Texas Tech University.

Quesada served as faculty at Northwestern University,[3] The School of the Art Institute,[4] Vermont College of Fine Arts, UCLA Writers' Program, Columbia College Chicago, where he taught Latinx literature, literary translation, editing, and poetry writing.[5] He is the founding member of the Latinx Writers Caucus,[6] which serves to promote the success of Latinx and Latin American writers at all stages of their career.[7]

Quesada has served as an editor and coordinator for The Rumpus[8], Kenyon Review[9], AGNI[10], Pleiades, Publishing Triangle Awards, and PEN America Literary Awards. He hosts a monthly literary broadcast called the Mercy Street Readings.

In 2021, he began serving on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, where he also serves as the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Publications

Quesada is the author of Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011), which "revels in the grounded, specific names and places of his California childhood, and invites them to join Zeus and Aphrodite in the pantheon of poetic allusion", and translator of Luis Cernuda: Exiled from the Throne of Night (Aureole Press, 2008).[11] He is currently working on an anthology entitled Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (University of New Mexico Press, 2022).

Quesada's poetry appears in The Best American Poetry[12] and has earned a Pushcart Prize nomination; his writing appears in Harvard Review, Guernica, The American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, Ploughshares[13] and Cimarron Review, among others.

In November 2018, a chapbook of original poetry and literary translations of Spanish poet Luis Cernuda titled Revelations[14] was published by Sibling Rivalry Press.[15] The title of the collection is inspired by the medieval book by Christian mystic Julian Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love.

References
  1. Ruben Quesada, Poetry Foundation, 2015, retrieved 3 December 2015
  2. "DIY: A Tiny Interview With Ruben Quesada". blog.pshares.org. Retrieved 2021-12-17.
  3. "Ruben Quesada: Department of English - Northwestern University". Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  4. "rquesa". School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  5. "Ruben Quesada". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  6. López, Julián Esteban Torres (2019-12-06). "Latinx Writers Caucus: Interview with Ruben Quesada". The Nasiona. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  7. "LIT 50 2017". Newcity Lit. 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  8. "Meet Our New Rumpus Editors!". The Rumpus.net. 2016-08-12. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  9. "Ruben Quesada Archives". The Kenyon Review. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  10. "Agni Online". agnionline.bu.edu. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
  11. Calderwood, Brent (4 January 2012), 'Next Extinct Mammal' by Ruben Quesada, Lambda Literary, retrieved 3 December 2015
  12. Lehman, David; Gioia, Dana (2018-09-18). Best American Poetry 2018. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781501127809.
  13. "Ruben Quesada". blog.pshares.org. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  14. Quesada, Ruben (2018-05-29). "Ruben Quesada". Ruben Quesada. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
  15. ""A Bridge to Some Other Possibility": Interview with Bryan Borland & Seth Pennington". Indiana Review. 2018-07-28. Retrieved 2018-10-13.
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