Passwords: Martín Espada on Puerto Rican Poetry

Poet Martín Espada addresses the political poetic tradition of Puerto Rico, from Julia de Burgos to three major poets—Clemente Soto Vélez, Juan Antonio Corretjer and Francisco Matos Paoli—who were imprisoned for their “seditious” words and ideas.

Martín Espada is professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His books of poetry include The Trouble Ball (2011), The Republic of Poetry (2006), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Imagine the Angels of Bread (1996), which won an American Book Award. He is the author of the recent book of essays on poets and poetry, The Lover of a Subversive is Also a Subversive (2010), and editor of two poetry anthologies. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, and the Robert Creely Award, among many other honors.