Javier Zamora
Javier Zamora (born 1990)[1] is a Salvadoran American poet and activist.[2]
Javier Zamora | |
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![]() Zamora, reading at Sacred Heart School, Washington, D.C. 2018 | |
Born | 1990 San Luis La Herradura, El Salvador |
Language | English, Spanish |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley (BA) New York University (MFA) |
Genre | Poetry, Prose |
Notable works | Unaccompanied, SOLITO |
Notable awards | Wallace Stegner Fellow, NEA Fellow, Lannan Foundation Fellow, Ruth Lilly Fellow, Radcliffe Institute Fellow at Harvard University |
Spouse | Married |
Website | |
javierzamora |
Early life
Zamora was born in San Luis La Herradura, El Salvador[3] and immigrated to the United States at the age of nine, joining his parents in California.[4][2]
Education
He earned a BA at the University of California, Berkeley and an MFA at New York University and was a 2016–2018 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.[5][2]
Career
Zamora's chapbook Nueve Años Inmigrantes/Nine Immigrant Years won the 2011 Organic Weapon Arts Contest, and his first poetry collection, Unaccompanied,[6] was published in 2017 by Copper Canyon Press. His poetry can be found in American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2013, Kenyon Review, Narrative Magazine, The New Republic, The New York Times, Ploughshares, and Poetry.
Honors
Zamora's honors include Barnes & Noble Writer for Writer's Award (2016), Meridian Editors’ Prize, and the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. Zamora has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, CantoMundo, Colgate University, The Frost Place,[7] MacDowell Colony, The Macondo Writers Workshop, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, the National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing, and Yaddo.[8][5] In 2017, Zamora was awarded the Narrative Prize for "Sonoran Song," "To the President-Elect," and "Thoughts on the Anniversary of My Crossing the Sonoran Desert".[9][10]
Activism
Zamora was a founder, with poets Marcelo Hernandez Castillo and Christopher Soto (AKA Loma), of the Undocupoets campaign which eliminated citizenship requirements from major first poetry book prizes in the United States.[3][11]
Books
- Nueve Años Inmigrantes/Nine Immigrant Years Organic Weapon Arts, 2012. ISBN 9780982710616, OCLC 824739031 – chapbook
- Unaccompanied, Copper Canyon Press: Port Townsend, 2017. ISBN 9781556595110, OCLC 972237998
- Solito: A Memoir, Hogarth Books: New York, 2022.
- In Anthology
- Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, University of Georgia Press, 2018. ISBN 9780820353159, OCLC 1004957170
References
- "The Harrowing Migration Story of One 9-Year-Old Child". The New York Times. September 8, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2022.
- "Javier Zamora". Poetry Foundation. June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- "Rethinking Poetic Citizenship". Poets & Writers. June 17, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- "Javier Zamora – Narrative Magazine". Narrativemagazine.com. April 17, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- "Art Talk with Poet Javier Zamora". Arts.gov. December 16, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- "Copper Canyon Press: Unaccompanied, Poetry by Javier Zamora". Coppercanyonpress.org. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- "The Poems of Javier Zamora – Good Times Santa Cruz". Goodtimes.sc. April 10, 2012. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
- "Javier Zamora - PEN America". Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2017.
- "Biography". javierzamora.net. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
- "Narrative Prize". Narrative Magazine. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
- "Undocupoets Organizers Are Making Headway by Harriet Staff". Poetry Foundation. June 5, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
External links

- Poetry and Profile at Poetry Foundation website
- Profile at Poets & Writers magazine
- "Sonoran Song and Other Poems" at Narrative Magazine.
- Appearances on C-SPAN