We are thrilled to say that Manuel Paul López, winner of the 2013 Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry from the University of Notre Dame Press, will be reading at the University of Notre Dame in the Hammes Campus Bookstore on February 12th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. This reading is free and open to the public.
The poems in Manuel Paul López’s The Yearning Feed are embedded in the San Diego/Imperial Valley regions, communities located along the U.S.-Mexico border. López, an Imperial Valley native, considers la frontera, or the border, as magical, worthy of Macondo-like comparisons, where contradictions are firmly rooted and ironies play out on a daily basis. These poems synthesize López’s knowledge of modern and contemporary literature with a border-child vernacular sensibility to produce a work that illustrates the ongoing geographical and literary historical clash of cultures. With humor and lyrical intensity, López addresses familial relationships, immigration, substance abuse, violence, and, most importantly, the affirmation of life.
López was born and raised in El Centro, California, and received degrees from the University of California, San Diego and San Francisco State University. He is a CantoMundo fellow and was recently awarded a Creative Catalyst Fund grant from the San Diego Foundation in 2012, making him 1 of 15 inaugural fellows. His work has been published in Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingue, The Bitter Oleander, Hanging Loose, Rattle, and ZYZZYVA, among others, and anthologized in Roque Dalton Redux (Cedar Hill Publications). With his wife, he lives in San Diego, California. His first book, Death of a Mexican and other Poems was published by Bear Star Press in 2006 and was awarded the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize.
Can’t wait to see y’all there!
Suzi G