Press Releases
Contact: Sheila Lanham, Director FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE U.S. Poets in Mexico June 9, 2008 P.O. Box 4150, Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163
Email: USPIM@earthlink.net
http://www.uspoetsinmexico.org
In January 2009, U.S. Poets in Mexico will bring their premier annual event to Merida. U.S. Poets in Mexico will bring contemporary American and Mexican poets to Merida every year for one week of poetry workshops, readings and lectures. The January 2009 poetry workshops will be held at Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatan and readings will be held at the Merida English Library. Faculty members will be notable and award winning poets, will always include two bilingual professors and a translator who has participated in the publication of a bilingual anthology of contemporary Mexican poets. Participants will have the option to study Spanish and travel on two day-trips. Prospective workshop participants must apply online at http://www.uspoetsinmexico.org
The January 2009 Merida faculty will include: Forrest Gander, Pedro Serrano, Bob Holman, C.D. Wright, Cornelius Eady and Maureen Owen. Readings by the 2009 Merida Faculty and by Mexico City poets, Pedro Serrano and Coral Bracho, San Miguel de Allende poet, Valerie Mejer and Briceida Cuevas Cob, a Maya language poet from Campeche, will be featured. All readings will be FREE to the public.
Along with numerous books of poetry, the January 2009 Merida faculty have collectively received many awards, including: 3 Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellow, 3 Lannan Foundation Fellowships, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, 2 Gertrude Stein Awards for Innovative North American Poetry, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, winner of the Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets, an Obie, a Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts award recipient, an American Book Award winner, 3 Emmys, a Bessie Performance Award, an International Public Television Award, a Barnes and Noble "Writers for Writers Award" by Poets & Writers, a Robert Creeley Award, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and more. Please visit our website for full biographies of all poets!
U.S. Poets in Mexico was formed in 2008 by poet and artist Sheila Lanham. The program was born out of a love of poets and poetry, a love of Mexico, a desire to know more about Mexican poetry and to share that knowledge. A second program will be held at the end of May and will travel to a different city in Mexico each year. The May program will follow the same format as the annual Merida workshop program.