Ruben Quesada, Ph.D., is an American poet and critic. He was born and raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California. In 2022, Dr. Quesada published an edited collection of essays, ''Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry'' was be published by University of New Mexico Press. It "explores the ways in which a people's history and language are vital to the development of a poet's imagination and insists that the meaning and value of poetry are necessary to understand the history and future of a people." His poetry appears in ''

The Best American Poetry ''The Best American Poetry'' series consists of annual poetry anthologies, each containing seventy-five poems. Background The series, begun by poet and editor David Lehman in 1988, has a different guest editor every year. Lehman, still the general ...

'' and has earned multiple Pushcart Prize nominations; his writing and criticism appear in ''The New York Times'', ''

Harvard Review ''Harvard Review'' is a biannual literary journal published by Houghton Library at Harvard University. History In 1986 Stratis Haviaras, curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University, founded a quarterly periodical called ''Erato''. ...

'', ''

Guernica Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...

'', ''

The American Poetry Review ''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizabet ...

'', ''

TriQuarterly ''TriQuarterly'' is a name shared by an American literary magazine and a series of books, both operating under the aegis of Northwestern University Press. The journal is published twice a year and features fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, liter ...

'', ''

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 Bos ...

'', '' Kirkus Reviews'' and ''

Cimarron Review ''The Cimarron Review'' is a major American literary journal published quarterly by the Oklahoma State University. It was founded in 1967, and its current editor is Lisa Lewis. The magazine has its headquarters in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Contributo ...

''.

Education

Dr. Quesada earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

, a Master of Fine Arts degree i
Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts
at

UC Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. Th ...

. In 2012, he then went on to earn a

Doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

in English (Poetry and Poetics) at

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

Career

After receiving a Ph.D. in English, Dr. Quesada moved to Illinois in 2012. Soon after, with the mentorship of founding members from CantoMundo Poetry, Macondo Writers, and Letras Latinas, he founded th
Latinx Writers Caucus
at the Association of Writing & Writing Programs (AWP). Dr. Quesada served as faculty at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

The School of the Art Institute The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...

Vermont College of Fine ArtsUCLA Writers' Program
Columbia College Chicago, where he taught Latinx literature, literary translation, editing, and poetry writing. He is the founding member of the Latinx Writers Caucus, which serves to promote the success of

Latinx ''Latinx'' is a neologism in American English which is used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The gender-neutral suffix replaces the ending of ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' that are typical o ...

and Latin American writers at all stages of their career. In 2018, a chapbook of original poetry and literary translations of Spanish poet

Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda Bidón (September 21, 1902 – November 5, 1963) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. During the Spanish Civil War, in early 1938, he went to the UK to deliver some lectures and this became the start of an exile t ...

titled ''Revelations'' was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. The title of the collection is inspired by the medieval book by Christian mystic Julian of Norwich, ''

Revelations of Divine Love ''Revelations of Divine Love'' is a medieval book of Christian mystical devotions. It was written between the 14th and 15th centuries by Julian of Norwich, about whom almost nothing is known. It is the earliest surviving example of a book in ...

''. He is the author of ''Next Extinct Mammal'' (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011), which "revels in the grounded, specific names and places of his California childhood, and invites them to join Zeus and Aphrodite in the pantheon of poetic allusion", and translator of ''Luis Cernuda: Exiled from the Throne of Night'' (Aureole Press, 2008). In 2021, Dr. Quesada began serving on the board of the

National Book Critics Circle The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics C ...

, where he was the VP of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from 2021 - 2023; he was Chair of the award in nonfiction for the 2022 publishing year. The same year he was Contributing Editor at ''TAB Journal'' at Chapman University in Orange, California. From 2021 - 2022, Quesada launched and served as the host of the
Mercy Street
Reading Series''
a live literary broadcast featuring contemporary poets and writers.
Currently, Dr. Quesada is an editorial advisor fo
Jack Leg Press
and teaches as a
Associate Teaching Fellow
at the Attic Institute of Arts & Letters, the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. He is faculty in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Antioch University-Los Angeles.

Works

''Exiled from the Throne of Night''

2008) ''Next Extinct Mammal'' (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011) ''Revelations'' (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018) ''Best American Poetry'' (Simon & Schuster, 2018) ''Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry'' (University of New Mexico Press, 2022) ''Jane / La Segua''
The Offending Adam
2023)

External links

Author's websiteProfile at Poetry FoundationProfile at The Academy of American Poets

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quesada, Ruben Living people 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets American magazine editors American online publication editors American male poets American people of Costa Rican descent American gay writers Eastern Illinois University faculty Hispanic and Latino American poets LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people LGBT people from California American LGBT poets Poets from California Texas Tech University alumni University of California, Riverside alumni Writers from Los Angeles Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers Gay poets