Levi Romero Named New Mexico's First Poet Laureate

New Mexico has selected Levi Romero, "a poet, architect, lowrider, and professor of Chicano studies who writes in Spanish, English, and Spanglish, with and without italics," as its first poet laureate. The selection "doesn’t just embody the beguiling complexities of New Mexico," writes Molly Boyle for Hyperallergic. "It also underscores the importance of literary representation in the state with the greatest percentage of Hispanic residents." More:

...Romero’s appointment comes amid a debate that was electrified last month by Oprah’s book club selection of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. The novel, written by a self-identified white woman, has come under fire for its stereotypical portrayal of Mexican immigrants and hokey Spanish dialogue.

The 58-year-old Romero was once described by his fellow University of New Mexico professor Rudolfo Anaya as “a rebellious young man, not well understood in the classrooms where he turned in his poetry instead of book reviews, wore long hair, answered questions about Shakespeare in Spanish instead of the Queen’s English, stayed up late drawing instead of studying, and was lowriding by age 12.” Romero has published two collections of poetry: A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works, and In the Gathering of Silence. He also co-authored the book Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland with Spencer R. Herrera.

Romero first apprenticed as a draftsman and builder, then trained as an architect while taking UNM creative writing classes for fun. Amid Albuquerque’s burgeoning slam scene in the mid-1990s, he studied with Sandra Cisneros as well as Native American poets Luci Tapahonso and current US poet laureate Joy Harjo. His work reflects this simmering stew of cultural influences...

Read on at Hyperallergic.