Spanning early accounts of colonial expeditions in the Southwest, visions of the mythical site of Chicano origin, Aztlán, and contemporary expressions of diasporic longing and imagination, the Latino poetic tradition brings dazzling insight to what it means to make a home in America, all the while imparting its own distinct rhythms, lyricism, and candor to American verse.
Recognition of the beauty and power of this tradition has grown in recent years, with Latino poets receiving two national and twelve state Poet Laureateships, a Pulitzer Prize, and three National Book Awards. At the same time the questions confronted by Latino poets—of exile and belonging, language and identity, struggle and solidarity, and labor and landscape—have become ever more urgent.
What does Latino poetry reveal about America? How might it help us imagine a more just, joyful, and capacious future? Places We Call Home, a major public humanities initiative planned for 2024–2025, explores these and other questions through a nationwide engagement with the Latino poetic tradition, illuminating how its legacy of creativity, resistance, and reinvention shapes our evolving aspirations of e pluribus unum.
Join us!
Latino Poetry is a national public humanities initiative directed by Library of America, a nonprofit publisher and cultural institution, in partnership with the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and arts organizations, museums, and libraries nationwide.
It comprises signature events in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, New York City, and San Juan, Puerto Rico; scholar-led public conversations in seventy-five public libraries around the country; a website with resources and a media archive; and a groundbreaking new anthology.
The initiative seeks to center the rich and diverse voices of the Latino poetic tradition, bringing them into conversation with current debates about the history and promise of America. With the guidance and participation of prominent scholars and poets, the programming will examine the extraordinary breadth and range of Latino poetry and its ongoing relevance to our national life.
Latino Poetry is a partnership of numerous arts and cultural organizations, including the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures; the Miami Book Fair; the Chicago and Los Angeles public library systems; the National Museum of Mexican Art; Brooklyn Public Library and the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center; the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio; the Puerto Rican Endowment for the Humanities in San Juan; the Academy of American Poets; Cave Canem; Poetry Society of America; and the National Book Foundation. Other participants include U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and Presidential Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco.
Rigoberto González, professor of English at Rutgers University, serves as the project’s Principal Humanities Advisor and editor of Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology. He is supported by a national advisory board of poets and scholars.
Library of America is a nonprofit organization that champions the nation’s cultural heritage by publishing America’s greatest writing in authoritative new editions and providing resources for readers to explore this rich, living legacy. You can read more about our work and mission on our website.
Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology will be published on September 3, 2024, and will be kept permanently in print.
Please direct media inquiries and review copy requests to Leslie Schwartz at lschwartz@loa.org.
The full website will be launched in late spring/early summer of 2024, and will be updated regularly.
You can check the project website (LatinoPoetry.org) for all news and updates about the Latino Poetry project, including details on upcoming events and information about the anthology.
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