MARTÍN ESPADA is a prolific poet, essayist, and editor. Some titles among his many poetry collections include: Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (Curbstone Press, 1990), Alabanza (W.W. Norton, 2003), Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas (Smokestack Books, 2008), and most recently, Vivas to Those Who Have Failed (W.W. Norton, 2016).

Espada’s many awards and recognitions include two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships (1986 & 1992), the Pushcart Prize (1999), Pen/Revson Foundation Fellowship in Poetry (1989), National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist (1997), Robert Creeley Award (2004), Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2006), Pulitzer Prize Finalist (2007), National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award (2008), among others. In 2018, Espada won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, in recognition of his outstanding lifetime contributions to poetry.

In 2001, Espada served as Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. He still resides in Massachusetts where he works as professor of poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.