Robert Vasquez is a Chicano/Latino poet, writer and teacher.

Career

Born to working-class parents, Vasquez was raised in California's Central Valley.

Education

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

from

California State University at Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California. It is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers bachelo ...

and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in English from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing for two years at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Awards

Vasquez's poetry has received various awards, including three

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

prizes, three

National Society of Arts and Letters The National Society of Arts and Letters (known by its abbreviation NSAL) is an American non-profit group founded in 1944 as a women's organization to assist promising young artists through arts competitions, scholarships and other career opportuni ...

awards, and a

National Writers Union National Writers Union (NWU), founded on 19 November 1981, is the trade union in the United States for freelance and contract writers: journalists, book and short fiction authors, business and technical writers, web content providers and poets. ...

award. In 2004 he was the inaugural judge for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize.

Teaching

He has taught at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

and

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

and University of California, Santa Cruz. He currently teaches at

College of the Sequoias College of the Sequoias (COS) is a public two-year community college in Visalia, California. The college is named for the Giant Sequoia trees native to the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range. History College of the Sequoias was originally esta ...

Visalia, CA Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...

. In his creative writing courses, he focuses on

Freudian theory Sigmund Freud (6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) is considered to be the founder of the psychodynamic approach to psychology, which looks to unconscious drives to explain human behavior. Freud believed that the mind is responsible for both cons ...

in student writing.

Publications

Books

He is the author of ''At the Rainbow'' (

University of New Mexico Press The University of New Mexico Press (UNMP) is a university press at the University of New Mexico. It was founded in 1929 and published pamphlets for the university in its early years before expanding into quarterlies and books. Its administrative ...

) winner of the James Duval Phelan Award and the

chapbook A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered bookle ...

, ''Braille for the Heart'', (Momotombo Press, 2007).

Journals

Vasquez's poetry has been published in various journals including ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Book Review,

The Missouri Review ''The Missouri Review'' is a literary magazine founded in 1978 by the University of Missouri. It publishes fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction quarterly. With its open submission policy, ''The Missouri Review'' receives 12,000 manuscripts ...

, The New England Review, The

Notre Dame Review ''The Notre Dame Review'' is a national literary magazine. Founded by the University of Notre Dame, it publishes fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction quarterly. The first issue was published in Winter 1995. Awards Each year ''The Notre Dame ...

, ''Parnassas: Poetry in Review,''

Ploughshares ''Ploughshares'' is an American literary journal established in 1971 by DeWitt Henry and Peter O'Malley in The Plough and Stars, an Irish pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1989, ''Ploughshares'' has been based at Emerson College in Boston. ...

, VerseDaily.com, and ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

''.

Anthologies

''After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties edited by Ray Gonzalez, American Religious Poetry: An Anthology'' Edited by Harold Bloom, ''The Atomic Bomb, Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age, California the Beautiful, The Geography of Home, Highway 99, How Much Earth, Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State, Piecework: 19 Fresno Poets, Proud Harvest, Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California, and Writing Home: Award-Winning Literature from the New West.

References

External links

Author's blog
spotlight on Vasquez American male poets California State University, Fresno alumni American poets of Mexican descent Living people University of California, Irvine alumni Poets from California Year of birth missing (living people) Stegner Fellows {{US-poet-stub