Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize Winners Announced

See this announcement from the University of Notre Dame:

Letras Latinas, the literary program of the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, has announced the winners of its two national literary competitions — the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize, which supports the publication of a first full-length book by a Hispanic poet residing in the United States; and the new Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize, which will usher into print a second or third book of poetry by a Hispanic writer.

The judge of the fifth edition of the Montoya Prize, California poet Francisco X. Alarcón, has selected Laurie Ann Guerrero as the prize winner. Guerrero’s manuscript, “A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying,” will be published by the University of Notre Dame Press next year. Guerrero, a native of Texas, is the author of the chapbook “Babies Under the Skin” and teaches at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas. She will be joined by Alarcón for a public reading at Notre Dame upon the publication of her debut volume.

Poets Dan Vera and William Archila, residents of Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, respectively, are the winners of the inaugural edition of the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize. Notre Dame English Professor Orlando Menes has selected Vera’s “The Guide to Imaginary Monuments” and Archila’s “The Gravedigger’s Archeology” for publication by Red Hen Press in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Vera, a South Texas native of Cuban descent, is the author of “The Space Between Our Danger and Delight.” Archila, a native of El Salvador, has one book of poetry in print as well: “The Art of Exile.” Both will be invited to read from their winning books in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. Each will also be awarded a two-week writing residency at Ragdale, an artist colony in Lake Forest, Ill

More on the authors, including links to the contests and Letras Latinas, after the jump.