Letras Latinas Publishing Collaborative Expands

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, is pleased to announce an expansion of its Publishing Collaborative. Up until now, Letras Latinas has enjoyed partnerships with Red Hen Press, FlowerSong Press, and Tia Chucha Press. In support of the Alta California Chapbook Prize, Letras Latinas is excited to partner with Gunpowder Press. This collaboration will support ongoing efforts of both the Press and Letras Latinas’ particular mission of amplifying the Latine community’s storytellers. “Gunpowder Press is excited to work with Letras Latinas and series editor Emma Trelles to continue and to expand the legacy of the Alta California chapbook series, which has brought into print the voices of some of the most talented and imaginative Latine poets writing today,” “said David Starkey, publisher and co-editor of Gunpowder Press.  “I’m especially pleased that the chapbooks will continue to be designed by my co-editor, Chryss Yost, whose work is universally admired for its elegance and beauty.”

The  prize is awarded to Latine poets residing in the United States. The winning manuscript is published annually in a bilingual edition by Gunpowder Press. The series translator is Alexandra Lytton Regalado, its Spanish style editor is Josué Andrés Moz, and its English style editor and series editor is Emma Trelles. To date the press has published seven bilingual chapbooks. Through its partnership with Gunpowder Press, Letras Latinas will help fund the next and subsequent winners of the Alta California Chapbook Prize with a travel stipend for the prize winner to participate in an in-person reading in Santa Barbara, California; support Gunpowder Press in promoting the winning chapbook; and work closely with series editor Emma Trelles, the Prize’s inaugural judge, on the curation of future judges. Past judges have included Francisco Aragón, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, and Richard Blanco. This year’s judge will be Dr. Raina León.

“For many years now, our view has been that what was missing from our poetry ecosystem was a national chapbook prize. The Alta Prize extending its reach beyond my home state, coupled with Letras Latinas “passing the baton,” so to speak, on the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, has created an ideal scenario for us to step in with our support,” said Letras Latinas director Francisco Aragón.  “We are thrilled to mesh our efforts with the Prize and the good work at Gunpowder to create this three-party collaboration—one rooted in solid, long-standing relationships.” About this year’s judge: Raina León, PhD, is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education. She is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, and Macondo, and is the author of black god mother this body; Canticle of Idols; Boogeyman Dawn;  sombra : (dis)locate; and the chapbooks  profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. She has received fellowships and residencies with The Watering Hole, the Obsidian Foundation, Community of Writers, Montana Artists Refuge, Macdowell, Vermont Studio Center, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Annamaghkerrig, Ireland, and Ragdale, among others. She is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, an online quarterly, international journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts. She retired early as a full professor of education at Saint Mary’s College of California, only the third Black person, the first Afro-Latina, and first Boricua to achieve that rank and is now professor emerita there. She supports poets and writers at the Stonecoast MFA at the University of Southern Maine. León is an enrolled member of Higuayagua Taino of the Caribbean. About the series editor: Emma Trelles is a Cuban-American writer, editor, and educator. She is the 9th poet laureate of Santa Barbara and the author of Tropicalia (University of Notre Dame Press), winner of the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of an Established Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council and a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. A current CantoMundo fellow, her poems and translations have recently appeared in Poetry International, New England Review, the Academy’s Poem-A-Day series, and Poetry magazine.

About the series translator: Alexandra Lytton Regalado is a Salvadoran-American author, editor, and translator. She is the author of Relinquenda, winner of the National Poetry Series (Beacon Press, 2022) and Matria (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Alexandra is the translator of Efímero by heidi restrepo rhodes and Family or Oblivion by Elena Salamanca. Her poetry translations have been published or will appear in New England Review, Poetry International, FENCE, and Tupelo Quarterly. 

Gunpowder Press is an independent poetry press based in Santa Barbara, California. The press is co-edited by David Starkey and Chryss Yost. Both Starkey and Yost have served as Santa Barbara Poet Laureate. Gunpowder Press is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Letras Latinas strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation, and study of Latinx literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame with an emphasis on programs that support newer voices, foster a sense of community among writers, and place Latinx writers in community spaces. Letras Latinas is under the direction of Francisco Aragón, who established the initiative in 2004.