Rubén Medina

Rubén Medina (he/him) is a poet, translator, and scholar, as well as one of the founders of Infrarealism. His research and teaching center on Mexican and United States Latinx literature and culture, continental connections, neo-avant-garde movements, and Mexican migration to the United States. His published research includes the books Autor, autoridad y autorización: Escritura y poética de Octavio Paz (approximately translated “Author, Authority, and Authorization: Writing and Poetics by Octavio Paz”; Colegio de México, 1999), Genealogías del presente y pasado: Literatura y cine mexicanos (approximately translated “Genealogies of the Present and Past: Mexican Literature and Film”; Centro de Estudios Literarios Antonio Cornejo Polar, 2011), and articles in journals and books. 

His published poetry includes Báilame este viento, Mariana (approximately translated “Dance this Wind for Me, Mariana”; UC Irvine Press, 1980), Amor de Lejos: Fools’ Love (Arte Público Press, 1986), several editions of Nomadic Nation / Nación nómada (Cowfeather Press, 2015; Rosalita Cartonera, 2011; La Ratona Cartonera, 2010), Aquel Quetzalcóatl se fue pa’l Norte (approximately translated “Quetzalcoatl Went Away North”; Ediciones El Viaje, 2018), and Los perdidos (approximately translated “The Lost Ones”; Editorial Ultramarina Cartonera & Digital, 2021). He received a 1982 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing, as well as other poetry awards, and his poems have been included in several anthologies. 

His translations include Memorias de una beatnik (Memoirs of a Beatnik) by Diane di Prima (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2020), and, in collaboration with John Burns, Una tribu de salvajes improvisando a las puertas del infierno (approximately translated “A Savage Tribe Improvising at the Gates of Hell”; Editorial Aldus, 2012), an anthology of Beat poetry translated into Spanish. He edited a critical edition of Mario Santiago Papasquiaro’s long poem, Consejos de 1 discípulo de Marx a 1 fanático de Heidegger (approximately translated “Advice from 1 Disciple of Marx to 1 Heidegger Fanatic”; Matadero, 2016), as well as the anthology Perros habitados por las voces del desierto: poesía infrarrealista entre dos siglos (approximately translated “Dogs Inhabited by Desert Voices: Infrarealist Poetry between Two Centuries”), published in Mexico, Peru, and Chile between 2014 and 2018.