Letras Latinas
Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study of Latinx literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame–with an emphasis on supporting emerging voices, fostering a sense of community among writers, and placing literary artists in community spaces.
Current Programs
Letras Latinas Blog 2
Letras Latinas Blog 2 (LLB2) offers insight and commentary on contemporary letters, especially poetry. LLB2 publishes reviews, interviews, brief essays, roundtable discussions, and occasionally re-frames material presented elsewhere on the web, including past Letras Latinas collaborations. LLB2 is the next iteration of Letras Latinas Blog, which functioned between 2007 and 2022.
Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
A new multi-year partnership with Notre Dame’s new art museum, this program includes multiple components. Brenda Cárdenas, the current Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, recently launched one: a series of readings that will take place in the Museum’s atrium—public presentations on the practice of art-inspired writing, which will include projections of the art that inspired those writings. Last March (2025), the poet and fiction writer Maria Kelson inaugurated a second component: inviting visiting writers to the Notre Dame campus to spend time in the Raclin Murphy galleries with an eye toward starting a new piece inspired by artworks in the permanent collection—with the aim of publishing it in a projected co-edited volume that will include reproductions of the visual art that inspired it. A third component will involve some of these visiting writers teaching a community workshop on ekphrastic writing.
Letras Latinas Emerging Poets Initiative
One flagship gesture of this re-imagined initiative is a two-day Master Class on ekphrastic writing slated for June 3-4, 2026 at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art—to be led by Brenda Cárdenas with the participation of a co-hort of emerging poets, alongside the co-editors of another flagship gesture of this initiative: the forthcoming anthology, We Come from Everything: Poetry for the 21st Century, a partnership between Letras Latinas and Graywolf Press. This evolving initiative builds on the groundwork established by the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, founded and administered by Letras Latinas, which supported the publication of ten debut, full-length books of poems between 2005 and 2024.
To learn more about the forthcoming anthology, please visit:
https://www.graywolfpress.org/news/graywolf-press-partners-letras-latinas-new-latinx-anthology
Letras Latinas Publishing Collaborative
This initiative formally names what has existed for years: a constellation of partnerships with independent presses to bring forth literary works by Latinx poets and writers.
Past collaborators included: University of Notre Dame Press for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize: 2005-2024; Bilingual Press for the Canto Cosas series: 2008-2017; Noemi Press for the Akrilica series: 2013-2022; and Red Hen Press for the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize: 2013 – 2021.
Letras Latinas currently partners with Red Hen Press for a curated series: 2023 to the present; Tia Chucha Press for a curated series: 2025 to the present; FlowerSong Press for curated selections in 2024 and 2026, respectively; and Graywolf Press for the forthcoming aforementioned volume, We Come from Everything: Poetry for the 21st Century (2027)
Letras Latinas Oral History Project
This project produces video interviews of Latinx writers visiting the Notre Dame campus with the aim of making them available as an online resource for faculty, students, scholars, and the community at large. Launched in 2005, this archive currently includes over 80 interviews. Since 2022, the archive also includes recordings of select Letras Latinas on-campus events, including, for example, “Afro-Latinx Poetry Now,” a two-day gathering featuring poets and scholars, which took place in 2022.
Spotlight on Latino Writers
A special subset of the PALABRA Archive, "Spotlight on Latino Writers" is a collaborative series of recorded interviews cosponsored by the Library of Congress' Hispanic Reading Room and Letras Latinas. It features emerging and established American poets and prose writers of Hispanic descent who write predominantly in English. In each segment, the featured poet or writer participates in a moderated discussion with library curators as well as reads from his or her work. There are currently twenty-four recordings.
To access, Spotlight on Latino Writers, please visit:
https://guides.loc.gov/palabra-archive/spotlight-latinx-writers
Letras Latinas Community Reading Series
One aspect of this series is an annual spring partnership with the main branch of the St. Joe County Public Library. Letras Latinas inaugurated the series in March of 2025 with Maria Kelson in a presentation that included poetry and fiction. The series speaks to the University’s most recent Strategic Framework that calls for more meaningful engagement with the South Bend community. The second installment of the series, slated for March 25, 2026, will feature fiction writer, Ruben Reyes, Jr. The 2027 installment is slated to feature fiction writer Marcela Fuentes. Another aspect of this series is an annual fall partnership with Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, California. In both instances, this dual gesture aspires to make good on “placing literary artists in community spaces.”
Alta California Chapbook Prize
This is a new partnership with Gunpowder Press and Prize founder and series editor, Emma Trelles. In addition to providing curatorial assistance with the selection of current and future judges, Letras Latinas contributes towards the cash award for the winning poet, and travel and lodging for an in-person event in Santa Barbara, California for the winning poet upon publication of the dual-language chapbook.
To learn more about the Prize and Gunpowder Press, please visit:
https://gunpowderpress.com/
PINTURA : PALABRA: a project in ekphrasis
This was a multi-year initiative that fomented new writing inspired by art, specifically, the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibit, Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. Aspects of the initiative included ekphrastic writing workshops; inviting writers to engage with the exhibit; and partnering with literary journals to publish portfolios of ekphrastic writing. The exhibit debuted its national tour in 2013 and concluded in 2017. The six resulting portfolios in Poet Lore, Notre Dame Review, The Los Angeles Review, The Packinghouse Review, Western Humanities Review, and Poetry magazine, respectively, along with a Letras Latinas chapbook featuring a multi-part essay by Rigoberto González, are part of an on-going book arts initiative.
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2013/our_america/
Curated Conversation(s): A Latinx Poetry Show
Season one of this virtual initiative featured in-depth conversations between a Latinx poet and an interlocutor of their choosing. These pre-recorded discussions were posted (and remain archived) on the web every month and involved a deep dive into a first book. A parallel activity involved monthly book club discussions on Zoom moderated by guest poets. Season two was a series of transatlantic conversations between a U.S. Latinx poet and a British Latinx poet. This program was a partnership with The Writer’s Center and Duende District Bookstore, made possible with funding from the Poetry Foundation and private benefaction.
To access the archive of conversations, please visit: https://writer.org/curated-conversations-a-latinx-poetry-show/
Letras Latinas is a founding member of the Poetry Coalition, a national alliance working together to promote the values poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.
Letras Latinas is under the direction of ILS Professor of the Practice, Francisco Aragón, alongside Letras Latinas associates, Brent Ameneyro, Cloud Cardona, and Laura Villareal, who was elected by her peers to serve a two-year term on the Poetry Coalition’s leadership committee, comprised of three co-chairs.
Letras Latinas Faculty Advisory Circle
Letras Latinas counts on the collaboration of a handful of ILS affiliate faculty members who, over the years, have intentionally partnered with the ILS’ literary initiative in various capacities, and who will play a role in furthering its mission in the years to come. The current members of the Letras Latinas Faculty Advisory Circle are:
Francisco Robles
Department of English
Marisel Moreno
Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Timothy Matovina
Department of Theology
Anne Garcia Romero
Department of Film Television and Theatre
Our programs and projects are made possible, in part, thanks to the generosity of individual donors. To become a Letras Latinas benefactor, a tax-deductible contribution can be made to the Letras Latinas Fund. To learn more, contact: faragon@nd.edu