Ruben Quesada (Non-Fiction, Poetry, Translation) | Chicago, IL

Ruben Quesada is the author of Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press), translator of Luis Cernuda, Exiled from the Throne of Night (Aureole Press), he is founder and publisher of Codex Journal, Poetry Editor for The Cossack Review, Cobalt Review, and Luna Luna Magazine. He also serves a Senior Editor for Queen Mob’s Teahouse. He has been a fellow and Writer-in-Residence at Red Lodge Clay Center, Lambda Literary Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Santa Fe Art Institute, and CantoMundo. He is the editor of the anthology, Latino Poetics, forthcoming from the University of New Mexico Press.

Books

Blurbs, Press & Reviews

“Like Whitman, Quesada is a poet of motion—journeying to the center of the US, where the traditions and innovations of first-generation Americans traverse the meditative starbursts of hills; ford rivers; cross prairies; and seek out ‘the alpenglow of tomorrow and tomorrow.’ From Costa Rica to Los Angeles and across the continent, Quesada’s poems chronicle one family’s history: from the courtship of his parents to their separation, from his childhood struggles to awakening desire from his mother’s lottery winnings to his own personal losses, Ruben Quesada carries us toward ‘that seam in space’ where dream and experience intersect. This isn’t the story of what it means to come to this country. It’s the story of what it means to belong here”
—D. A. Powell

The poetry of the new decade. There is no other as naked, bold and powerful as Quesada.”
—Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate

“Ruben Quesada’s subjects, in other words, are ample and rich—his poems crafted with poignancy and grace.”
—Francisco Aragón, Director of Letras Latinas

“Next Extinct Mammal, the debut collection from Ruben Quesada, is like sifting through a box of small, rare gems. The poems, which range from tight sonnets to plainspoken prose poems to free verse, blend Western traditions and delicate prosody with refreshingly bold subject matter.”
—From Lambda Literary Review

“Ruben Quesada is, without question, a poet of place…What’s remarkable about Next Extinct Mammal is how Quesada transforms the personal into the public, the political, the natural, suggesting that, whatever our divergent backgrounds, each of us could still be next on the endangered species list.”
—From The Collagist

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