Ruben Quesada

Ruben Quesada (he/him) is an American poet and critic. Quesada grew up in Los Angeles, California. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts from the University of California, Riverside, and a PhD in English from Texas Tech University. He is the author of the full-length poetry collections Brutal Companion (Barrow Street Press, 2024) winner of the 2023 Barrow Street Editors Prize and Next Extinct Mammal (Greenhouse Review Press, 2011) as well as the chapbooks Jane / La Segua (The Offending Adam, 2023) and Revelations (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018). Quesada edited the anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (University of New Mexico Press, 2022), which examines the role of history and language in shaping a poet’s imagination, and translated the poems of Luis Cernuda in Exiled from the Throne of Night (Aureole Press, 2008).

Quesada’s poetry has been featured in The Best American Poetry 2018 and has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. His writing and criticism have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Harvard Review, Guernica, The American Poetry Review, TriQuarterly, and Ploughshares. Quesada has contributed to the literary community as the founder of the Latinx Writers Caucus at the Association of Writing & Writing Programs (AWP), supporting Latinx and Latin American writers throughout their careers. He served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle as Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from 2021 to 2023 and chaired the nonfiction award for the 2022 publishing year. Quesada has received fellowships from the Santa Fe Art Institute, City of Chicago, the Jentel Artist Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Lambda Literary, CantoMundo, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. 

As an educator, Quesada has taught Latinx literature, literary translation, editing, and creative writing at institutions including Northwestern University, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Columbia College Chicago, and others. Quesada is a faculty member in the low-residency MFA programs at Antioch University-Los Angeles and Cedar Crest College, and an editorial advisor for JackLeg Press. 

Quesada hosts the Mercy Street Reading Series, a live literary broadcast featuring contemporary poets which he launched in 2021.