Dan Vera | |
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Dan Vera reading at Iota Poetry Series 20th anniversary. | |
Born | South Texas |
Occupation | Poet, Editor |
Nationality | American |
Genre | Poetry |
Website | |
danvera |
Dan Vera (born South Texas) is an American poet and editor.[1]
Vera is the author of Speaking Wiri Wiri, (Red Hen Press, 2013)[2] and The Space Between Our Danger and Delight, (Beothuk Books, 2009). His manuscript The Guide to Imaginary Monuments was selected by Orlando Ricardo Menes for the 2012 Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize[3] and published as Speaking Wiri Wiri.[2] In 2014, he was named one of LatinoStories.com's "Top 10 'New' Latino Authors to Watch (and Read)", calling him "a talented, sophisticated poet who is a master at playing with words".[4] In 2017, he was the recipient of the Oscar Wilde Award for LGBT poetry.[5]
His work has appeared in The American Prospect, Foreign Policy in Focus, ''Poet Lore, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Delaware Poetry Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Konch, and Red Wheelbarrow.[6]
Vera's poetry blends English and Spanish. As he explains:
I love the English language. And I think one of the things that I love about the English language is the permeability of English to not only accept but also struggle with the incorporation of other languages like Spanish. So when I write, I'm constantly going back and forth between these two possible ways of articulating the world around me.[7]
Vera is poetry editor of Origins Journal[8] and past Managing Editor of White Crane.[8] He publishes other poets through Vrzhu Press and Souvenir Spoon Books.[9] Vera is the co-editor, with ire'ne lara silva, of an essay anthology about Gloria Anzaldúa, Imaniman: Poets Writing in the Anzaldúan Borderlands, (Aunt Lute Books, 2016).[10]
He founded Brookland Area Writers & Artists and serves on the boards of Split This Rock Poetry and Rainbow History Project.[11][12] His work as co-editor with Kim Roberts of the literary history site D.C. Writers' Homes was part of his effort to get to know Washington D.C.:
I was just really fascinated to discover that writing and writers had existed in D.C. before me. I live in the Brookland neighborhood, and was fascinated to find out that Sterling Brown lived a few blocks from me and wanted to know more about him — that kind of started a progression of interest in writers, playwrights and poets and novelists who called Washington home.[7]
Vera is a member of the prestigious Macondo Writers Workshop, the workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros.[13] and a fellow of the CantoMundo Poetry Workshop.
He lives in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C.[11]