Martín Espada (born 1957) is a poet and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and Latino poetry. Puerto Rico has frequently been featured as a theme in his poems. Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was introduced to political activism at an early age by his father, a leader in the Puerto Rican community and the civil rights movement. Espada received a B.A. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D. from Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts). For many years, he worked as a tenant lawyer and a supervisor of a legal services program. In 1982, Espada published his first book of political poems, The Immigrant Iceboy's Bolero, featuring photography by his father. This was followed by Trumpets from the Islands of their Eviction (1987) and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands. In 1996, he won the American Book Award for his collection Imagine the Angels of Bread. He has also been the recipient of a PEN/Revson Fellowship, the Massachusetts Artist's Fellowship, and Paterson Poetry Prize, among other honors. Espada is the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts.
Bibliography (poetry)
- Espada, Martín. Trumpets from the Islands of Their Eviction. 1987.
- Espada, Martín. Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands. 1990.
- Espada, Martín. City of Coughing and Dead Radiators: Poems. 1993.
- Espada, Martín. Imagine the Angels of Bread. 1996.
- Espada, Martín. A Mayan Astronomer in Hell's Kitchen. 2000.
- Espada, Martín. Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002. W.W. Norton, 2003.
- Espada, Martín. The Republic of Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.
External links
- Martín Espada Official site
- Martín Espada at Modern American Poetry
- "A Branch on the Tree of Whitman: Martín Espada on the 150th Anniversary of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass"
- "Martin Espada: Poetry and The Burden of History", interview with Steven Ratiner, Christian Science Monitor, March 6, 1991
- "The Greatest Poet of the 20th Century In Any Language" - Celebrating Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda, interview with Martín Espada, Democracy Now!, July 16th, 2004
- Interview with Martin EspadaE. Ethelbert Miller, Foreign Policy in Focus, April 4, 2007
