Many Worlds, Many Genres
Ray
Gonzalez lives in Minnesota, where he has taught at the U of MN (Minneapolis)
since ‘96, and Texas, where he was born and raised and where he won the ‘03 Lifetime
Achievement Award for Literature from the Border Regional Library Association.
The subjects of his work come from many worlds—the spiritual and magical, the
natural, the socio-political, the mundane, the purely personal. And while he is
most known and honored for poetry, he has won awards for his fiction and nonfiction
as well.
His 8th collection of poetry, Human Crying Daisies (Red Hen Press, ‘03), follows quickly on his much honored 7th collection, The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande (BOA Editions, ‘02), and two more collections will be released this year. Hawk Temple received a National Book Critic’s Circle Award Notable Book Citation for ‘02, won the ‘03 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry and The Texas Institute of Letters Award in Poetry.
The most recent of 12 anthologies he has edited is No Boundaries: Prose Poems by 24 American Poets (Tupelo, ‘03), a Minnesota Book Award Finalist in Anthologies. He has served as Poetry Editor of The Bloomsbury Review for 22 years and founded LUNA, a poetry journal, in ‘98. His poetry has appeared in the ‘99, ‘00, and ‘03 editions of The Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses 2000.
Gonzalez’s recent collection of his own essays, Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape ( U of Arizona, ‘02), received the ‘03 Carr P. Collins/Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best Book of Non-fiction, was named one of ten Best Southwest Books of the Year by the Arizona Humanities Commission, and was named one of the Best Non-fiction Books of the Year by the Rocky Mountain News. He also has two collections of short stories, The Ghost of John Wayne (Arizona, '01), winner of a '02 Western Heritage Award for Best Short Story and a '02 Latino Heritage Award in Literature) and Circling the Tortilla Dragon (Creative Arts, '02).
photo by Gary Isaacs
All readings include a question & answer period and a reception with books by the author(s) for sale.
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members and those under age 18)
The readings at the HVWC are made possible in part by a grant from the Bydale Foundation; the David G. Taft Foundation; the Orchard Foundation; and the Thendara Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and by Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government, corporations and individuals.