Rigoberto Gonzalez Reading: Our Lady of the Crossword

Rigoberto González is the author 15 books, most recently the poetry collection Unpeopled Eden, which won the Lambda Literary Award and the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. A professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey, he is the recipient of Guggenheim, NEA and USA Rolón fellowships; a NYFA grant in poetry; the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America; The Poetry Center Book Award; the Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award; and the 2015 Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle. Our Lady of the Crossword is a sexy new chapbook from award-winning author Rigoberto González, who casts his poetic eye to such varied subjects as word puzzles, Mexican TV in the 80s, can-can dancing, and other compelling encounters that shaped the political consciousness of his cultural heritage and sexuality. This well-wrought collection gestures to González’s formal poetics and examines the complexities of a queer identity within the U.S., México and on the rich border landscape that unites the two nations. Powerful and sensory, playful and erotic, these poems dazzle on the page with González’s characteristic fireworks. Our Lady of the Crossword is a saint for all those sinners looking for blessings, miracles, redemption—and drag. Split This Rock and Center Latino are community sponsors for this event.