writer / editor / watercolorist
Dan Vera
A lovely and moving film of my poem, "The Borders Are Fluid Within Us," read by the international Fellows of the Aspen Global Leadership Network of the Aspen Institute.
12/14/24 Reading with Natalie Illum & Miller Oberman @ the American Poetry Museum
12/10/24 On Emily Dickinson's birthday, the Poetry Foundation chose "Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam," a poem from my first book, as its "Poem of the Day."
12/01/24 "Instructions Upon Arrival" in the December 2024 Issue of Poetry magazine!
LATEST NEWS
12/10/24
Delighted to discover my poem, "Emily Dickinson at the Poetry Slam" was chosen as "Poem of the Day" by the Poetry Foundation on Emily Dickinson's birthday! This poem is from my first book of poetry, The Space Between Our Danger And Delight.
12/01/24
Grateful that a new poem of mine, "Instructions Upon Arrival", appears in the December issue of Poetry magazine as part of a portfolio celebrating Letras Latinas' 20th Anniversary! Thanks to Francisco Aragon and Laura Esquivel for choosing to include my poem and to the editors for their work on this issue!
11/12/24
Had a wonderful time reading at the Folger Shakespeare Theater with Valerie Martinez and Blas Falconer in celebration of Letras Latinas' 20th Anniversary and the publication of the Library of America's Latino Poetry anthology! My thanks to Teri Cross Davis, the brilliant director of the venerable O.B. Hardison Series at the Folger and Francisco Aragon, the Director of the Letras Latinas program of the Institute of Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame and to Sami Miranda, of the American Poetry Museum who served as moderator for the after reading conversation. So lovely to see and speak with old friends and new friends and witness the gorgeous building after so many years of closure for its renovation.
POEMS ONLINE
Poetry Foundation
Split This rock
LIMP WRIST
FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS
BELTWAY POETRY
Latino Poetry:
The Library of America Anthology
Library of America #382
Edited by Rigoberto Gonzalez
Includes "Small Shame Blues"
Top pick for Hispanic Heritage Month
- Good Morning America
A groundbreaking collection that captures as never before the richness, diversity, and power of the Latino poetic imagination. Includes more than 180 poets, spanning from the seventeenth century to today, and presents poems written in Spanish in original form and in English translation.
"a wondrous journey through the passions, the ideas, and the diversity of a people redefining what it means to be American"
Héctor Tobar, Pulitzer Prize winner
Union Shops & Indies In Green
Union Shops & Indies In Green
Imaniman: Poets Writing In
the Anzalduan Borderlands
Aunt Lute Books
Edited by ire'ne lara silva & Dan Vera
With a Foreward by U.S. Poet Laureate
Juan Felipe Herrera
In homage to Gloria Anzaldúa and her iconic work Borderlands/La Frontera, award-winning poets ire’ne lara silva and Dan Vera have assembled the work of 54 writers who reflect on the complex terrain—the deeply felt psychic, social, and geopolitical borderlands—that Anzaldúa inhabited, theorized, explored, and invented.
"Within shifting borders-it is good to enter into these voice worlds-to stand, bow & listen in their presence. Peoples, familias, cities, towns, rancherías and the wilderness of all border-crossers & messengers of border spaces open in these pages."
Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate_
“I can't stress how amazing this book is... Quite simply, there's much to learn and appreciate here and you'd be hard pressed to find a fresh anthology that offers so many voices of different backgrounds in one place.”
Glass: A Journal of Poetry
Speaking Wiri Wiri
Red Hen Press
Winner of the Letras Latinas/Red Hen
Poetry Prize
Introduction by Orlando Menes
“Top Ten “New” Latino Author
to Watch (and Read)”
“a prescient understanding of the copious interplay between language and culture, made more lush still by the mediation of his Romantic imagination.” Orlando Menes
“These poems evoke the various ways that language exiles us and embodies the indelible past — who we are, where we came from, how we know.” Valerie Martínez
“a careful look at the untraceable impacts of the words that surround us. Each of us—whether we mean to or not—looks back to find out where we are and why we are what we are. Dan Vera’s new collection operates as a kind of soulful blueprint for this search.” Tim Seibles
“this book, Speaking Wiri Wiri, has quickly become one of my favorite books of poems from a contemporary Latino poet. I think it's fantastic.” Daniel Chacón, Words On A Wire
“Full of longing and bittersweet humor, these poems are lyrical, narrative, poignant, and always powerful. In his own search for who and what he really is, Vera has given us a true portrait of the confused and often contradictory place that is modern America.” Linda Rodriguez
“Writing with authority, assurance and passion, Speaking Wiri Wiri earns Vera his rightful place alongside his poetry heroes, living and dead.” Dallas Voice
“a talented, sophisticated poet who is a master at playing with words.” LatinoStories.com
Union Shops & Indies In Green
Union Shops & Indies In Green
The Space Between Our
Danger and Delight
Beothuk Books
Best Book -Monserrat Review
“The poetry of Dan Vera is clear, strong, honest and funny. He’s the sharp-eyed observer in the corner who doesn’t say much, but makes every word count. He handles the political and the personal with equal grace, even as the lines blur. Dan Vera is damn good company. You’ll see.” Martín Espada
“This is what we first understood poetry to be, miraculous and humble. In the deepest part of the heart where we truly reside, there is always a wish that poetry will rinse off artifice. This is it. This is the most satisfying book of poems we can read if we want to witness language with a real poet as its servant. Grace Cavalieri” Grace Cavalieri
"Ranging through landscape and history, family legacy and gay life, Dan Vera's poems are melodic, lucid, and concise examinations of "the limits of earthly loving." They remind us of what blessings the world possesses and what flesh-hating forces endanger those delights." Jeff Mann
Dan Vera is a writer, editor, watercolorist, and literary historian. Recipient of the Oscar Wilde Award for Poetry and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize, he’s the co-editor of Imaniman: Poets Writing In The Anzaldúan Borderlands (Aunt Lute Books) and author of two books of poetry, Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press) and The Space Between Our Danger and Delight (Beothuk Books).
His work is featured by the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and included in college and university curricula, various journals including Poetry, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly; and in anthologies including Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (LOA #382), Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, The Traveler’s Vade Mecum, and The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South.
A CantoMundo and Macondo Writing Fellow, he's been a featured reader around the country including the Dodge Poetry Festival, The Poetry Foundation in Chicago, The Library of Congress and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, and New York City’s Bryant Park and Poets House reading series. The longtime chair of Split This Rock Poetry, he's also served on the board of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) and Rainbow History.
INTERVIEWS
National Endowment for the Arts
OutSmart Magazine
KTEP Radio
WAMU Radio
WRITING ONLINE
AMERICAN PROSPECT
BELTWAY POETRY
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