Paul Martínez Pompa
http://paulmartinezpompa.com
Born and raised in suburban Chicago, Paul Martínez Pompa earned his BA in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago and his MFA in Creative Writing at Indiana University, where he also served as poetry editor for the Indiana Review.
Martínez Pompa’s first book of poetry is entitled My Kill Adore Him (2009). According to the University of Notre Dame Press, the title is “a homophonic translation of the Spanish word maquiladora, which translates into English as ‘factory’ or ‘sweatshop.’” Martínez Pompa’s poems often focus on topics of race, language, consumerism, cultural identity, and masculinity. In 2008, poet Martín Espada selected the collection to be the recipient of the Andrews Montoya Poetry Prize. Praising My Kill Adore Him, Espada noted that the poems are “gritty and visceral, but never cross the line into sensationalism” while they “vividly evoke the urban world, especially Chicago, without ever lapsing into urban cliché.”
Martínez Pompa’s poetry and prose have also appeared in anthologies such as Telling Tongues: A Latin@ Anthology on Language Experience (2007), and The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (2007). His chapbook, Pepper Spray, was published in 2006.
Martínez Pompa lives in Chicago and teaches composition and creative writing at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois.
Martínez Pompa’s first book of poetry is entitled My Kill Adore Him (2009). According to the University of Notre Dame Press, the title is “a homophonic translation of the Spanish word maquiladora, which translates into English as ‘factory’ or ‘sweatshop.’” Martínez Pompa’s poems often focus on topics of race, language, consumerism, cultural identity, and masculinity. In 2008, poet Martín Espada selected the collection to be the recipient of the Andrews Montoya Poetry Prize. Praising My Kill Adore Him, Espada noted that the poems are “gritty and visceral, but never cross the line into sensationalism” while they “vividly evoke the urban world, especially Chicago, without ever lapsing into urban cliché.”
Martínez Pompa’s poetry and prose have also appeared in anthologies such as Telling Tongues: A Latin@ Anthology on Language Experience (2007), and The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (2007). His chapbook, Pepper Spray, was published in 2006.
Martínez Pompa lives in Chicago and teaches composition and creative writing at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois.