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| Photo from fishhousepoets.org |
Kevin Gonzalez grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He writes short fiction as well as poetry. He attended college in Pittsburg and received his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in poetry as well as a second Masters degree from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in fiction. He received the Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He is relatively new to the literature scene having published his first book in 2009 entitled Cultural Studies, although he did publish a chapbook published in 2007. He has had poems in anthologies of both American and Latino literature. Gonzalez currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin and is the co-editor of jubilat, as well as being the co-curator for the Monsters of Poetry reading series.
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| Photo from howitgit.com |
In several of his other poems the anthology Gonzalez writes about his life growing up. He often chooses to write in the second person as a way to put the focus on the reader and to draw them in, while still being self-exploratory. This style of writing does really well when reading the poetry as a window, it draws you in and allows you to put yourself in the middle of what the poem is talking about. This works really well in a poem entitled “Cultural Silence; or, How to Survive the Last American Colony.” This poem really draws you into the political scene of Puerto Rico by putting you in the shoes of person at a bar where political talk is prohibited, yet tourists can talk about it and you can feel how this Puerto Rican feels when Gonzalez writes “Here, you will want to drop your own politics/like an egg crate. Don’t.”
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| Photo from indianareview.blogspot.com |
While Gonzalez’s topics may be mainly about Puerto Rico and they will appeal to anyone with ties to the island, there are aspects of every poem that anybody can relate to. If they can’t relate, the poems provide a wonderful mirror into someone else’s life and culture.
Lynn, it was interesting to read about the background of your poet because I wasn't able to hear you share in class. It is neat that he writes about memories from his childhood. Do you know if he still travels to Puerto Rico or if he still has family that lives there?
ReplyDeleteI was also intrigued that he writes both fiction and poetry. In the interview link you posted, I read about how he originally wanted nothing to do with fiction. His poems do seem quite narrative, which fits both genres well. I liked his poem "To Roberto Clemente" and think it is powerful how he continues to feel and maintain strong connections with his homeland though he lives so far away.
Whoa! I followed that link to the Monsters of Poetry and was a bit surprised (and amused) at all the zombie/monster imagery (perhaps that should have been obvious given the title, but I assumed the name was more metaphorical…). I guess the monster imagery adds a bit of atmosphere and up-and-coming feel to the project.
ReplyDeleteI was also interested in all the sports name-dropping. I had no idea who most of the figures were when I skimmed the poems a few weeks ago, so I was glad you mentioned the connection to boxing and baseball. It made me appreciate how cultural icons can stand in for larger issues and how their careers act as unifying elements.
It was cool to read about your poet since he focused on issues happening specifically in Puerto Rico rather than broader Latino/a issues. Choosing to write in second person as a way of drawing people in and acting as a window was neat as well. Trying to evoke emotion in the reader and make them experience what the poet has experienced is one of the main goals of poetry, and Gonzales seems to do this really well.
ReplyDeleteI think it's significant that though he has lived in other places, Puerto Rico has a strong hold on him. Like you said, his country is the source, the inspiration for a lot of his poems is really important. I wonder if he'd like to live there again someday.
It seems very effective for the writer to use the second person to draw in the readers. Then, it makes it seem like not only a foreign experience but something that can become their own. That seems very valuable and helpful to put the reader in the middle of the experience and not just let them see it from the outside looking in. I agree with what Mandy said, he seems to do very well at trying to evoke emotion in the reader and make them experience what the poet describes.
ReplyDeleteIt is cool to see how his past still influences him. Something we have been discussing in another class of mine is the importance of maintaining one's native culture when moving and living in a different one and how that can be done. I think it is very important to not forget one's native culture and to let it be a part of your life and I think that Gonzales' demonstrates this in his poetry.
Lynn, over Christmas break I went to Puerto Rico. I was staying at a friend’s house and right next to her house was a popular soccer field. It just so happened to be that during the time I was staying there, the championship soccer games were going on. So for the day I went and watched
ReplyDeleteThere were two things that caught my attention. First was that the female championship soccer game was the bigger game of the two, male and female. But, the second was that professional soccer players from the San Juan Islanders, two of them, came to the game to watch there wives. They just walked around with the people like it was nothing. I actually got caught gawking that they cam and took a picture with me. But truly they love their sports.