Curiel, a San Francisco native and a specialist in Chicano and Latino studies, will read from her latest collection, Mexican Jenny and Other Poems, winner of the 2012 Philip Levine Prize. The book portrays the domestic and working class experiences of Latina women and records “their unrecognized histories.”
The Philip Levine prize takes its name from the Poet Laureate of the United States 2011-2012. Levine, 86, is a Pulitzer Prize and two-time National Book Award winner renowned for his populist poems about working class Detroit. He taught for more than 30 years at CSU Fresno.
Curiel’s first book of poetry, Speak to Me from Dreams, appeared in 1989. Her early writing career produced two chapbooks, Nocturno and Vocabulary of the Dead. In 2010-2012 she took a fellowship with CantoMundo, the national organization for Latino poets.
A graduate of Mills College and Stanford University, Curiel earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a Humboldt State professor in the Departments of English and of Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Curiel’s Mar. 7 reading, open to the public, is sponsored by Celebracion Latina, the Departments of English and of Critical Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and by the HSU Library.
Copies of Mexican Jenny and Other Poems will be available for purchase and signing by the author.
Details and arrangements for access to the Fishbowl are available from Kumi Watanabe-Schock at (707) 826-5656.