Rigoberto González

Rigoberto González lives in Newark, NJ and is the author of eighteen books of poetry and prose. His awards include Lannan, Guggenheim, NEA, NYFA, and USA Rolón fellowships, the PEN/ Voelcker Award, the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and the Shelley Memorial Prize from the Poetry Society of America. Contributing editor for Poets & Writers, he is the series editor for the Camino del Sol Latinx Literary Series at the University of Arizona Press. Currently, he’s Distinguished Professor of English and the director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey.

Carmen Giménez

Carmen Giménez is publisher and director of Graywolf Press and the author of several books including Be Recorder, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award.

Laura Villareal (Moderator)

Laura Villareal is the author of Girl’s Guide to Leaving, which was awarded Texas Institute of Letter's John A. Robert Johnson Award for a First Book of Poetry. She has received fellowships from the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts, National Book Critics Circle, and the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program at University of Texas-Austin. Currently, she’s an associate with Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, where she co-edits and writes for Letras Latinas Blog 2, in addition to working on other related projects.

Francisco Aragón (Introducer)

Francisco Aragón is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. He is the author of Puerta del Sol and Glow of Our Sweat, as well as editor of The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry. His poems have appeared in twenty anthologies. In 2017, he was a finalist for Split This Rock’s Freedom Plow Award for Poetry & Activism. A native of San Francisco, California, he directs Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. ragón divides his time between Mililani, HI and South Bend, IN.