Anne Newman Sutton Weeks Poetry Series
2012-2013 Season

Shira Dentz is the author of a book of poems, black seeds on a white dish; a chapbook, Leaf Weather; and another forthcoming full-length collection, door of thin skins. She was Writer-in-Residence at the New College of Florida in Spring 2012 and is also the Book Review Editor of Drunken Boat. A graphic designer as well as a poet, her poems show care for the visual and aural qualities of space and silence. This year, Dentz will teach creative writing at Westminster.

Westminster College continues to offer a small poetry class open to both students and members of the community each Monday (January 7–April 22) from 4:30–7:20 PM. To be considered, please email three poems in one document with contact information (name, phone, email, address) by October 15 to Natasha Sajé, nsaje@westminstercollege.edu. Participants will be notified by December 1.

Ana Castillo, Westminster’s visiting writer for Fall 2012, is a distinguished novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright. She has taught as a scholar and writer in residence for many years at schools such as MIT, Mt. Holyoke, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She publishes the zine La Tolteca, a literary forum working toward a world without borders and censorship. Her novels include The Guardian and So Far From God; poetry collections, Watercolor Women, Opaque Men, and I Ask the Impossible; her collection of essays, Massacre of the Dreamers.

Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1973, Juan Pablo Villalobos has published travel stories as well as literary and film criticism. He now divides his time between Barcelona and Brazil. His first novella, Fiesta en la madriguera, has been translated into Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Romanian, Dutch, and English. The English translation, Down the Rabbit Hole, is by Rosalind Harvey. Ali Smith of The Daily Telegraph writes, “A pint-size novel about innocence, beastliness, and a child learning the lingo in a drug wonderland. Funny, convincing, appalling, it’s a punch-packer for one so small.”

The author of five books of poems, Cyrus Cassells has also worked as a translator, actor, film critic, and teacher. His most recent book, The Crossed-Out Swastika, tells the stories of young people caught in the vise of World War II. In its journey through the “antimiracle” of Europe’s embattled past, this book follows the lives of historical characters confronted by human violence. Cassells’s poems unearth and amplify moments of bravery, music, beauty, and redemption. His honors include a Lambda Literary Award and the William Carlos Williams Award. When he’s not traveling, he teaches at Texas State University at San Marcos.

Topside Press presents the west coast debut of The Collection: Short Fiction from the Transgender Vanguard. Several contributors to the volume will read from their work, showcasing the future of trans literature and one of the next great movements in queer art.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Martín Espada has published more than 15 books as a poet, editor, essayist, and translator. His latest collection of poems, The Trouble Ball, is the recipient of the Milt Kessler Award. His other honors include the Robert Creeley Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. His work has been widely translated: collections of poems have recently been published in Spain, Puerto Rico, and Chile. His essay collection, Zapata’s Disciple, was banned in Tucson. A former tenant lawyer, Espada is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.