After Rubén
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“Keough Hall” appeared in the online anthology No Tender Fences: An anthology of Immigrant & First Generation American Poetry (2019), which was a fundraiser for the organization, Raices - Texas.
“Far Away” appeared in HERE: Poems for the Planet (Cooper Canyon Press, 2019)
“Far Away” was made into a limited edition broadside on the occasion of a reading on April 13, 2019, in Santa Barbara, CA as part of the Mission Poetry Series, curated by Emma Trelles.
“Far Away,” “Seashell,” “The Man and the Wolf,” “To George W. Bush,” “January 21, 2013,” “Winter Hours,” “I Pursue a Shape,” and “1916,” along with Rubén Darío’s Spanish-language originals, made up the limited edition chapbook His Tongue a Swath of Sky (m o m o t o m b i t o, 2019)
“My Rubén” (essay) appeared in Crab Orchard Review in June, 2019.
“Winter Hours,” along with the Spanish original, “De invierno,” appeared in a brief essay, “Translation as activism: an updated version of Rubén Darío” in Poetry International (online), summer of 2018.
“2012” appeared in Nepantla: an anthology for queer poets of color (Nightboat Books, 2018).
“Keough Hall” was part of the Poetry Foundation’s PoetryNow audio podcast series in July, 2017.
“We Talk Dogs” (as “Dogs”), “January 21, 2013,” and “Blister” appeared in Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (Tia Chucha Press, 2017).
“Poem with a Phrase of Isherwood” appeared in Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice (University of Arizona Press, 2016).
“Postcard” appeared in Not Like the Rest of Us: An Anthology of Contemporary Indiana Writers (Indiana Writers Center, 2016).
“Poem With A Phrase of Isherwood” appeared in Cave Canem Anthology XIII. (Aquarious Press/Willow Books, 2015).
“Lui Minghe Speaks” appeared in A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (University of Akron Press, 2012).
“To George W. Bush” (as “To the President”) appeared in Full Moon On K Street (Plan B Press, 2010).
“Jugglers” appeared in Helen Burns Poetry Anthology: New Voices from the Academy of American Poets’ University & College Prizes, 1999–2008. (Academy of American Poets, 2010).
“Blister” appeared in Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry (Floricanto Press, 2008).
“Poem with Citations from the O.E.D” appeared in Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns (Teachers and Writers Collaborative, 2007).
“Ernesto Cardenal in Berkeley,” “Poem with Citations from the O.E.D.,” “Portrait with Lines of Montale,” “Because They Lived Abroad” (as “Grid”), “To the Old World” (as “Al Viejo Mundo”), and “Far Away” appeared in The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press, 2007).
“The Man and the Wolf” and “Nicaragua in a Voice” appeared in Evensong: Contemporary American Poets on Spirituality (Bottom Dog Press, 2006).
“The Century” appeared in Red, White, & Blues: Poetic Vistas on the Promise of America (University of Iowa Press, 2004).
“1985” (as “Her Hair”) appeared in Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California (Heyday Books, 2002).
“Photo, 1945” appeared in American Diaspora: Poetry of Displacement (University of Iowa Press, 2001).
“Postcard” (as “View from the Park”), “Jugglers,” and “Photo, 1945” appeared in Light, Yogurt, Strawberry Milk, (Chicano Chapbook Series, #26, 1999).
“Symphony in Gray” and “Walt” (as “Walt Whitman”) appeared in Glow of Our Sweat (Scapegoat Press, 2010).
“The Inevitable” (as “Rubén Darío as Prelude”) appeared in Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press, 2005).
“Portrait with lines of Montale” was a Red Dragonfly Press broadside, set by hand by the author and printed on September 21–22, 2007 at the Anderson Center in Red Wing, MN, in an edition of eighty-five.
“Jugglers” won an Academy of American Poets Prize in 1999.
“1985” (as “Witness”) won 1st Place in Mr. Cogito’s Human Rights Poetry Contest in 1987.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Deep gratitude to the following organizations: the Macondo Writers Workshop with special thanks to Sandra Cisneros; CantoMundo, whose workshops yielded a number of the poems in this book; the Dodge Poetry Festival, for their invitation to read at their festival in 2018; Split This Rock, for their invitation to read at their festival in 2010; Red Hen Press and Kate Gale, for inviting me to read at a number of their events over the years; Mesa Refuge with special thanks to Susan Page Tillet, for designating me as the inaugural Poetry Fellow in 2015; the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley with special thanks to Brenda Hillman for inviting me to be a staff poet in 2017; the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, for being my institutional home since 2003. I’d like to acknowledge and thank my fellow co-founding members of the Poetry Coalition for their camaraderie in recent years. My gratitude to Hank Feenstra for a one-week writers retreat in the Pacific Northwest in 2014. My thanks to Fred Arroyo and Emma Trelles for offering a fresh set of eyes on the manuscript and providing feedback for the “pruning” that After Rubén underwent. Special thanks to Michael Dowdy, Juan Felipe Herrera, Carmen Giménez Smith, Cornelius Eady, Ada Limón, John Phillip Santos, and Valerie Martínez for their endorsements. Special thanks to Jose Rodeiro for permission to reproduce his art on the cover. Fellow writers who have been compañero/as and inspirational models of literary citizenship over the years: Fred Arroyo, Naomi Ayala, José Ballesteros, Richard Blanco, Sarah Browning, Carmen Calatayud, Don Cellini, Teri Cross Davis, Blas Falconer, Gina Franco, Carmen Giménez Smith, Rigoberto González, Maria Melendez Kelson, Alexandra Lytton-Regalado, John Matthias, Orlando Menes, Juan J. Morales, Carlos Parada Ayala, Kim Roberts, John Phillip Santos, Emma Trelles, Natalia Treviño, Dan Vera, and Louis Villalba. Other friends who have nourished me: Bill McGrath, Wally Babington, Ken Crocker, Marvin Kuperstein, Roger Carlson, Stan Peabody, Wesley Waite, Gary Hogle, Paul Romero, José Medina, Larry Feinberg, Steve Leahy, Dave Glidden, and George Castillo. Hearfelt thanks to Kate Gale and Mark Cull, with whom I connected in 2009 at the FIL in Guadalajara, Mexico and embarked on multifaceted collaborations, including this book—it’s been fun. Special thanks to my family on the West Coast for their unconditional love and support. The essay, “My Rubén” was written on the coast of Devon in Torquay, England: thank you, Mike Cook, for providing a home during the homestretch of this book.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
A San Francisco native, Francisco Aragón (author) is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. Upon his return to the U.S. in 1998 after a decade in Spain, Aragón completed degrees in creative writing from UC Davis and the University of Notre Dame. In 2003 he joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), where he established Letras Latinas. In 2017, he was a finalist for Split This Rock’s Freedom Plow Award for poetry and activism. A CantoMundo fellow and a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop, he is the author of Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press) and Glow of Our Sweat (Scapegoat Press), as well as editor of The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press). In the fall he teaches Latinx poetry on the Notre Dame campus, and in the spring he teaches a poetry workshop in Washington, D.C. To learn more, visit: http://franciscoaragon.net
Michael Dowdy (foreword) is the author of Broken Souths: Latina/o Poetic Responses to Neoliberalism and Globalization (University of Arizona Press) and the co-editor, with Claudia Rankine, of American Poets in the 21st Century: Poetics of Social Engagement (Wesleyan University Press). As a poet, his works include a book, Urbilly, and a chapbook, The Coriolis Effect. He teaches at the University of South Carolina.
José Rodeiro (cover art) is a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artist’s Fellow; a Fulbright Scholar at University of Central America, Managua, Nicaragua, and a Cintas Fellow. His exhibits include Miami-Dade Museum of Art & Design, Monmouth Museum, Unio
n City Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Washington County (Maryland), Mason Gross Gallery (Rutgers), Wilmer Jennings Gallery, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York State Arts Council Gallery (Manhattan), Florida International University’s Frost Museum, Newark Museum, Galleries of Contemporary Art (Colorado Springs), UMDNJ’s Robert Wood Johnson Gallery, Joyce Gordon Gallery, Perth Amboy Gallery, Ponce Museum (Puerto Rico), Maloney Gallery (Morristown, NJ).
RUBÉN’S FRIENDS
Deep gratitude to the patrons who, in part, made After Rubén possible—in particular its post publication promotion. ¡Gracias!
Anonymous (3)
Martha Aragon Velez
Tomás & Irene Aragón
Wally Babington
Kevin Baker
Ken Crocker
Hank Feenstra
Gary Hogle & Barbara Lahman
Steve Leahy
William McGrath
Steve McCarthy
José Medina
Kurt Mitchler
Paul Romero