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Richard Blanco
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As a child of Cuban exiles who could claim citizenship in three
countries only forty-five days after my birth, questions about home and
place have naturally figured significantly throughout my life and in my
poetry. My first book, City of a Hundred Fires,
probes the questions confronting a Cuban-American growing up in Miami,
negotiating a cultural identity, and traveling to Cuba in search of
cultural and personal history. Since then, however, I have lived in
Connecticut, Washington DC, Guatemala and Brazil, and I have traveled
extensively. As a result, the poetics of place, and “home” have
led to an even broader and more complex inquiry. Recognizing that
my personal questions about home and place are actually very ancient
and universal ones, the scope of my work has enlarged to take in
experiences beyond the realm of cultural identity.
While still maintaining a solid claim on ethnicity, my most recent book, Directions to The Beach of the Dead,
aims for a more cosmopolitan perspective. I’ve learned that the need to
fulfill an ideal of home is a fundamental human desire, driving each of
us to seek a unique physical as well as spiritual place in the world.
But what exactly is place? What does it mean to say, I’m a Floridian,
or, I’m Cuban? How do we come to call someplace a home? What
makes Miami, Miami or New York, New York? Is it the architecture; the
people; the climate; its history; our memories; or our imagination?
I am interested in the complex ways in which memory, landscape, and
imagination collide and blend to form a sense of place or home. I am
fascinated by the notion that we are three-dimensional beings who
constantly live in the context of place; everything we experience and
feel is located in some particular space. As a writer I attempt to
recreate a tangible realm of tactile images and details, but must also
acknowledge that in some respects place is a human construct, an
unreachable ideal that is ultimately indeterminable, and thus the
subject of art. These are some of the concerns I am most engaged
with now in my quest to understand the measurable, as well as
immeasurable, qualities of the world and my place in it. And although
home may never be more than a myth just out of reach, an invisible city
just outside my window, or a place between the lines of my poems, I
endeavor, through poetry, to celebrate the mortal spirit seeking the
ideal of home and the essential beauty of that journey. I am grateful
to the PEN American Center for the Beyond Margins Award, which
acknowledges this journey and encourages me to continue my quest for
home through writing.
Photo copyright ©
2006 by Nico Tucci.
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Something to Declare: Celebrating Writers of Color
 When: Monday, October 16, 2006
Where: Donnell Library Center: 20 West 53rd St., NYC
What Time: 7 p.m.
>> More information
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Richard Blanco: From Directions to the Beach of the Dead
 Today, home is a cottage with morning / in the yawn of an open window. I watch / the crescent moon, like a wind-blown sail, / vanish. Blue slowly fills the sky and light / regains the trust of wildflowers blooming / with fresh spider webs spun stem to stem. >> Read more
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 Listen to Russell Banks reading Richard Blanco (3:56) |
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About the Author
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Richard Blanco was made in Cuba, assembled in Spain, and imported to the United States. A
renaissance man, Blanco’s resume is as diverse as his background: professional engineer, furniture designer,
graphic designer, student of architecture, and, of course, an accomplished poet. His first book of
poetry, City of a Hundred Fires,
explores the yearnings and negotiation of cultural identity as a
Cuban-American; and received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the
University of Pittsburgh Press (1998). His
poems have appeared in The Nation, Ploughshares, Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review,
TriQuarterly Review, New England Review, and several anthologies including, The Best American Poetry
2000, Great American Prose Poems, Breadloaf Anthology of New American Poets, and American Poetry: The
Next Generation. He has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered,
and
conferences and venues including The Southern Writers Conference and
Bread Loaf Writers Conference. A builder of bridges and poems, Blanco
received
both a bachelors of science degree in Civil Engineering (1991) and a
Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing
(1997) from Florida International University, where he studied under
the mentorship of Campbell McGrath. |
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Richard Blanco Online
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www.richard-blanco.com
Richard Blanco on NPR's All Things Considered
Poems by Richard Blanco in Beltway Poetry Quarterly
Abuela's Voices: A Chronicle published in Ploughshares
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