In Common Writers Series: Vanessa Angélica Villarreal and Raquel Salas Rivera, reading and in conversation

The In Common Writers Series moves across the Bay, to Moe’s Books on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, for what will be a powerful evening featuring poets Vanessa Angélica Villareal, joining us from Southern California, and—from Puerto Rico via Philadelphia, Raquel Salas Rivera. The In Common Writers Series, now in its second year, is supported by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund. Both this event and a reading and conversation by both poets the prior evening at The Poetry Center are free and open to the public. Join us!

Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is the author of Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, 2017), a recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award, a 2018 Texas Institute of Letters Poetry Prize, and a 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award finalist. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, BuzzFeed, The Boston Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Los Angeles, where she is raising her son with the help of a loyal dog. More at vanessaangelicavillarreal.com Photo: Self-portrait.

Raquel Salas Rivera es la Poeta Laureada de la ciudad de Filadelfia del 2018-19. Fue la recipiente inaugural del Premio Ambroggio  y la Beca de Laureada, ambos de la Academia de Poetas Americanos. Cuenta con la publicación de seis plaquetas y cinco poemarios. Su cuarto libro, lo terciario/the tertiary, fue finalista para el Premio Nacional del Libro del 2018 y ganó el Premio Literario Lambda a una obra de poesía transgénero del 2018. Su quinto poemario, while they sleep (under the bed is another country), fue publicado por Birds, LLC en el 2019. Recibió su Doctorado en Literatura Comparada y Teoría Literaria de la Universidad de Pensilvania. Raquel ama y vive por Puerto Rico, Filadelfia y un mundo libre de la supremacía blanca. Por mas: raquelsalasrivera.com/es Foto por Paloma Alicea.

Raquel Salas Rivera is the 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. They are the inaugural recipient of the Ambroggio Prize and the Laureate Fellowship, both from the Academy of American Poets. They are also the author of six chapbooks and five full-length poetry books. Their fourth book, lo terciario/the tertiary, was on the 2018 National Book Award Longlist and won the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry. Their fifth book, while they sleep (under the bed is another country), was published by Birds, LLC in 2019. They received their Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Pennsylvania. Raquel loves and lives for Puerto Rico, Philadelphia, and a world free of white supremacy. More at raquelsalasrivera.com Photo by Paloma Alicea.