All right, so, I'd like to now introduce our final reader who
is also another poet that I follow very closely,
and I'm in awe of all of the work that they do.
Raquel Salas Rivera, Mayagüez, 1985,
is a Puerto Rican poet translator and editor.
His honors include being named the 2018-2019 Poet
Laureate of Philadelphia, and receiving the New Voices
Award from Puerto Rico's Festival de la Palabra.
He is the author of five full-length poetry books.
His third book, Lo Terciario/ The Tertiary won the Lambda
Literary Award for transgender poetry,
and was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award.
His fourth book, While They Sleep: Under the Bed
is Another Country was longlisted for the 2020 PEN
American Open Book Award, and was a finalist for CLMP's 2020
Firecracker Award.
His fifth book, x/ex/exis, won the inaugural Ambroggio Prize.
Ante que isla es volcán/ Before Island is Volcano,
his sixth book, is an imaginative leap into Puerto
Rico's decolonial future, and is forthcoming from Beacon press
in 2022.
He holds a PhD in comparative literature
and literary theory at the University of Pennsylvania.
This year he joined the board of directors of a new community
project for trans and queer youth, Camp Albizu.
He is also alongside Raquel Albarrán and Val Arbonéis
editing the first anthology of Puerto Rican trans
poetry, La Piel Del Arrecife--
Is that correct?
Yeah.
Thank you.
Published by La Impresora in 2020.
Accompanied by his cat, Petri, he currently writes and teaches
in Puerto Rico.
Gracias, Raquel, for being here with us today.