Rigoberto González

Rigoberto González
Born July 18, 1970 (48)
Bakersfield, California
Occupation Professor, writer, critic
Nationality USA
Notable works So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks
Antonio's Card
Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa
The Mariposa Club
Red-Inked Retablos
Unpeopled Eden
Notable awards The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement (The Publishing Triangle)
2014 USA Rolón Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
NEA Fellowship
American Book Award
The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (Academy of American Poets)
The Poetry Center Book Award
The Shelley Memorial Award (Poetry Society of America)
NYFA Fellowship
Lambda Literary Award
Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award
Website
www.rigobertogonzalez.com

Rigoberto González (born 1970) is an American writer and book critic. He is an editor and author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and bilingual children's books, and self-identifies in his writing as a gay Chicano. His most recent project is What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of Brotherhood. He is the 2015 recipient of the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle.

Personal life

Born in Bakersfield, California on July 18, 1970, and raised in Michoacán, Mexico, he is the son and grandson of migrant farm workers, both parents now deceased. His extended family migrated back to California in 1980 and returned to Mexico in 1992. González remained alone in the U.S. to complete his education. Details of his troubled childhood in Michoacán and his difficult adolescence as an immigrant in California are the basis for his coming of age memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa.

During his college years he also performed with various Baile Folklorico and Flamenco dance troupes. He earned a B.A. in Humanities and Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California, Riverside,[1] and graduate degrees from the University of California, Davis, and Arizona State University in Tempe. His former teachers include the Chicano poets Gary Soto, Francisco X. Alarcón, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Pat Mora and Alberto Ríos, and the African American writers Clarence Major and Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Professional background

In 1997 González enrolled in a PhD program at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, but dropped out a year later to join his partner in New York City and to pursue a writing career. The two published their first books only a few months apart in the spring of 1999 and received numerous awards and recognitions for their works. In 2001, González pursued a career as an academic, holding distinguished teaching appointments at The New School, the University of Toledo, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Queens College/City University of New York.

González has lived and worked mostly in New York City and currently teaches at the writing program of Rutgers University in Newark,[2] where he is Professor of English. The recipient of a United States Artist Rolón Fellowship,[3] Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, The Lenore Marshall Prize of the Academy of American Poets, The Poetry Center Book Award from San Francisco State University, the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America,[4] a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship,[5] a Lambda Literary Award,[6] the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award[7] and of various international artist residencies including stays in Spain, Brazil, Costa Rica, Scotland, Switzerland and Italy (twice), he wrote a monthly Chicano/Latino book review column, from 2002 to 2012, for the El Paso Times. On July 22, 2012, González reached a milestone when he published his 200th review with the Texas newspaper.[8] He is also contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, an executive board member of the National Book Critics Circle, a contributing writer for Lambda Literary and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and a founding member of the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist-writers.

In 2008 he was named to the position of 2009 Poet-in-Residence by the Board of Trustees of The Frost Place, the farm house of Robert Frost located in New Hampshire. He was also named one of 100 Men and Women Who Made 2008 a Year to Remember by Out magazine. In 2009, My Latino Voice named him one of the 25 most influential GLBT Latinos in the country.[9]

Respected by members of the literary community for his versatility with literary genres and for his advocacy of emerging writers, González has championed a number of efforts to give visibility to marginalized voices. He curates and hosts The Quetzal Quill, a reading series in Manhattan, and has featured a number of poets on The Poetry Foundation blog Harriet,[10] and on the National Book Critics Circle blog Critical Mass through the Small Press Spotlight Series.[11] To date, he has written 109 entries for Harriet and "spotlighted" 66 authors on Critical Mass. He has also profiled for Poets & Writers Magazine the careers of Native American poet Sherwin Bitsui, the Guyanese poet Rajiv Mohabir, the Latinx writers Alex Espinoza, Eduardo C. Corral, David Tomas Martinez, Javier Zamora, Erika L. Sánchez, ans Carmen Giménez Smith, and the African American author Jacqueline Woodson. Currently, he writes a monthly column on Latinx literature for NBC-Latino online.

On March 30, 2016, González was named, along with 9 other prominent writers, critic-at-large at the L.A. Times.[12] As of 2016, he sits on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).[13]

On December 6, 2016, González was celebrated for his work and literary activism at Poets House.[14] The speakers at his tribute included Eduardo C. Corral, Ada Limón, Natalie Diaz, Saeed Jones, and the Poet Laureate of the United States, Juan Felipe Herrera. As of 2017, he will be the inaugural Stan Rubin Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the Rainier Writing Workshop.

Published works

Full-Length Poetry Collections

  • The Book of Ruin (Four Way Books, 2019)
  • Unpeopled Eden (Four Way Books, 2013)
  • Black Blossoms (Four Way Books, 2011)
  • Other Fugitives and Other Strangers (Tupelo Press, 2006) OCLC 329269270
  • So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks (University of Illinois Press, 1999) ISBN 9780252067983, OCLC 246271983

Poetry Chapbook

  • Our Lady of the Crossword (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2015)

Bilingual Children’s Books

  • Antonio’s Card/ La Tarjeta de Antonio (Children’s Book Press, 2005)
  • Soledad Sigh-Sighs/ Soledad Suspiros (Children’s Book Press, 2003) ISBN 9780892393091, OCLC 880247816

Novels

  • Mariposa U. (Tincture Books, 2015)
  • Mariposa Gown (Tincture Books, 2012)
  • The Mariposa Club (Alyson Books, 2009; Tincture Books, 2010) ISBN 9781590213506, OCLC 693750914
  • Crossing Vines (University of Oklahoma Press, 2003) ISBN 9780806135281. OCLC 50809294[15]

Memoirs and Other Nonfiction

  • What Drowns the Flowers in Your Mouth: A Memoir of Brotherhood (University of Wisconsin Press, 2018.) ISBN 9780299316907, OCLC 1003641909
  • Pivotal Voices, Era of Transition: Toward a 21st Century Poetics (University of Michigan Press, 2017.)
  • Autobiography of My Hungers (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013) ISBN 9780299292508, OCLC 808990373
  • Red-Inked Retablos: Essays (University of Arizona Press, 2013) ISBN 9780816521357, OCLC 807768205
  • Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006) ISBN 9780299219048, OCLC 740626000

Short Story Collections

  • Men without Bliss (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008) ISBN 9780806139456, OCLC 254493386

Works Edited

  • Xicano Duende: A Select Anthology (Bilingual Press, 2011)
  • Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing (University of Arizona Press, 2010)

In Anthology

  • Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University of Georgia Press, 2018)

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.alumni.ucr.edu/notable_alumni.html
  2. ↑ http://mfa.newark.rutgers.edu/faculty/gonzalezrigobertofacultypage.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.unitedstatesartists-2014fellows.org/
  4. ↑ http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/frost_and_shelley/shelley_winners/2011a/
  5. ↑ http://www.nyfa.org/level4.asp?id=497&fid=1&sid=1&tid=15
  6. ↑ http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/06/03/winners-of-the-26th-annual-lambda-literary-awards-announced/
  7. ↑ http://www.pw.org/about-us/writers_writers_award_and_editors_award
  8. ↑ http://labloga.blogspot.com/2012/07/celebrating-200th-el-paso-times-book.html
  9. ↑ Gonzalez, Antonio. "25 Most Influential GLBT Latinos". My Latino Voice. Archived from the original on 26 November 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2009. Gonzalez is an award-winning author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and bilingual children's books, and self-identifies in his writing as a gay Chicano. He is also contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, a former executive board member of the National Book Critics Circle, and is on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist-writers.
  10. ↑ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/author/rgonzalez/
  11. ↑ http://bookcritics.org/blog/category/small_press_spotlight/
  12. ↑ http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-times-critics-at-large-20160330-snap-htmlstory.html
  13. ↑ https://www.awpwriter.org/about/governance_board_trustees
  14. ↑ http://www.poetshouse.org/programs-and-events/readings-and-conversations/celebration-rigoberto
  15. ↑ For commentary on this book, see: Wild, Peter (2011). Paradise of Desire: Eleven Palm Springs Novels. Tucson, AZ: Estate of Peter Wild. p. 281. OCLC 748584112.

Sources

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