Dreaming America through Latinx Poetry

Two influential Latina poets will share their poetry and writing advice Feb. 6 as part of West Texas A&M University’s Distinguished Lecture Series. Poets Janel Pineda and Sara Uribe will present “Dreaming America through Latinx Poetry” in two events, both of which are free and open to the public. Pineda and Uribe will lead a discussion of writing and poetry at 12:30 p.m. Feb. 6 in the Blackburn Room of Cornette Library, then will host a poetry reading at 6:30 p.m. in the Sybil B. Harrington Fine Arts Complex Recital Hall. Dr. Andrew Reynolds, WT professor of Spanish, said these events center on Hispanic poetic expression today and the many ways to imagine the American dream through literature and performance. “This will be the seventh year for this successful event,” Reynolds said. “As our globalized world continues to be a site of continual cultural conflict, and as questions of identity, immigration and the power and influences of young people are front and center in policy discussions and current events, it is timely to have a panel of widely read women writers come, share their voices and discuss the complexities of language, writing and stories in America today.” Pineda, a Los-Angeles born Salvadoran poet, educator, and scholar of Central American literature, studied at Oxford University through a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship and returned to the UK on a Marshall Scholarship to earn her master’s degree in creative writing and education from the University of London. She also earned a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Cambridge, through which she examined representations of Salvadorans in literature. Pineda published “Lineage of Rain” in 2021, and she helped found an arts and culture publication with other Salvadoran writers called “La Piscucha Magazine.” Pineda is currently a Ph.D. student at UCLA in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies. Uribe, a celebrated Mexican poet, has earned prestigious prizes, including the Carmen Alardín Regional Poetry Prize, the Tijuana National Poetry Prize, and the Clemente López Trujillo Poetry Prize. Her work explores relationships between poetry, body, ethics and politics. Uribe published “Lo que no imaginas” (2005), “Palabras más palabras menos” (2006), “Nunca quise detener el tiempo” (2008), “Goliat” (2009), “Siam” (2012) and “Antígona González” (2016). Periodicals and anthologies in Mexico, Peru, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States have featured her poetry.