VISITING WRITER PROGRAM
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
Each semester, an accomplished writer visits OLLU to work with students and give a public reading. For more information, contact the program coordinator Nan Cuba, MFA, in the English Department, at nbcuba@lake.ollusa.edu.
Thank you to the Richard and Joyce Harris Sapience Foundation for their sponsorship of OLLU's Spring 2013 Visiting Writer
Spring 2013: Richard Blanco
 |
| Photo by Nico Tucci |
Richard Blanco was made in Cuba, assembled in Spain, and imported to the United States—meaning his mother, seven months pregnant, and the rest of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid where he was born. Only forty-five days later, the family emigrated once more and settled in New York City, then eventually in Miami where he was raised and educated.
His acclaimed first book of poetry, "City of a Hundred Fires," explores the yearnings and negotiation of cultural identity as a Cuban-American, and received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. His second book, "Directions to The Beach of the Dead," won the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center for its continued exploration of the universal themes of cultural identity and homecoming. A third collection, "Looking for The Gulf Motel," was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2012.
His poems have appeared in top literary journals including, "The Nation," the "New Republic," "Ploughshares," "Michigan Quarterly Review," and "TriQuarterly Review"; and several anthologies including, "The Best American Poetry," "Great American Prose Poems," "Breadloaf Anthology of New American Poets," and "American Poetry: The Next Generation." He has been featured on National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered," and various conferences and venues including the Miami Book Fair, The Southern Writers Conference, The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival, the Dodge Poetry Festival, and The Poetry Center at Smith College.
Blanco is recipient of two Florida Artist Fellowships, a Residency Fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and is a John Ciardi Fellow of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. A builder of cities as well as poems, he holds a bachelors of science degree in Civil Engineering and a Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. (Biography from Richard-Blanco.com).
In January 2013, Blanco was chosen by President Barack Obama as the Inaugural Poet.
Learn more about Richard Blanco.
Past OLLU Visiting Writers:
Thank you to the Shield-Ayres Foundation for its establishment of OLLU's Visiting Writer Program.
(Click on the author's name to view their website.)
Our Lady of the Lake University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Our Lady of the Lake University that fall under one of these areas: (1) to learn about the accreditation status of the institution, (2) to file a third-party comment at the time of the institution’s decennial review, or (3) to file a complaint against the institution for alleged non-compliance with a standard or requirement.