NOTRE DAME, IN – March 26, 2018 – Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is honored to present Felicia Zamora, winner of the 2016 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, together with judge Edwin Torres, a poet whose highly acclaimed performances and live shows combine vocal and physical improvisation and theater.
The biennial Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, awarded in collaboration with University of Notre Dame Press, supports the work of emerging Latinx poets through a cash prize and publication of the winner’s first full-length book of poems.
To celebrate Zamora’s debut collection, Of Form & Gather, the Institute for Latino Studies will hold a reception at 6:15 p.m., followed by a reading and discussion at 7:30 p.m. in 210–214 McKenna Hall on the Notre Dame campus. Both events are free and open to the public.
Zamora’s poems concern themselves with probing questions, not facile answers. Where does the self-reside? What forms do we, as human beings, inhabit as we experience the world around us? Echoing the collection’s provocative title, Torres writes: “Zamora has crafted a work that celebrates form as human evolution—the poem’s breath, the poet’s body—passing over time in a landscape thirsty for passage.”
Privileging journey over destination, Zamora’s poems spur the reader to immerse herself in linguistic soundscapes where the physicality of the poems themselves is, in no small part, the point: poems that challenge us to navigate the word/world as both humans and things.
“This is quietly revolutionary work,” Torres continues, “a living palimpsest to newly awaken our social engagement.”
With the publication of this volume, the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, now in its seventh edition, emphatically makes good on its aim to nurture the various paths that Latinx poetry is taking in the 21st century. The prize provides a space for artists who, while part of the largest and fastest growing minority in the United States, are also increasingly diverse in their modes of literary expression.
Co-sponsors of the April 4 event include the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and The Graduate School at Notre Dame.
For additional information, call (574) 631- 4440 or visit www.latinostudies.nd.edu.
About the Institute for Latino Studies:
The Institute for Latino Studies advances understanding of the fastest-growing and youngest population in the United States and the U.S. Catholic Church.
ILS strengthens the University of Notre Dame’s mission to prepare transformative leaders in all sectors including the, arts, business, politics, faith, and family life among Latinos and all members of our society.
Since its creation in 1999 the Institute for Latino Studies has played a vital role in fostering understanding of the U.S. Latino experience. Building upon the history of Latinos at Notre Dame and the outstanding intellectual legacy of Julian Samora, a pioneering Latino scholar and professor of sociology, the Institute supports scholarly initiatives in Latino studies as a key component of Notre Dame’s academic mission. By teaching and preparing leaders, advancing research, and strengthening community, the Institute is true to the mission, tradition, and distinctively Catholic values of Notre Dame.