Vincent Toro

Poet

Fort Lee, NJ
New Jersey US
Twitter/X: 

Author's Bio

Vincent Toro is a Boricua poet, playwright, and professor. He is the author of two poetry collections: Tertulia (Penguin Random House, 2020) and Stereo.Island.Mosaic. (Ahsahta, 2016), which won the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. Vincent is a recipient of the Caribbean Writer’s Cecile De Jongh Poetry Prize, the Spanish Repertory Theater’s Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award, a Poet’s House Emerging Poets Fellowship, a New York Council for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry, and a New Jersey State Council for the Arts Writer’s Fellowship. His poetry and prose has been published in dozens of magazines and journals and has been anthologized in Saul Williams’ CHORUS, Puerto Rico En Mi Corazon, Best American Experimental Writing 2015, Misrepresented People, and The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Rider University, is a Dodge Foundation Poet, and is a contributing editor for Kweli Literary Journal.

Publications & Prizes

Anthologies:
The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext (Haymarket Books, 2020)
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Misrepresented People: Poetic Responses to Trump's America (NYQ Books, 2018)
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Best American Experimental Writing 2015 (Wesleyan University Press, 2016)
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Chorus (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
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The Waiting Room Reader 2 (CavanKerry Press, 2013)
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The Last Cacique, published with the play La Gringa, by Carmen Rivera (Samuel French, 2011)
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Coloring Book: An Anthology of Multicultural Poems and Stories (Rattlecat Press, 2004)
Books:
Tertulia (Penguin Random House, 2020)
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Stereo.Island.Mosaic. (Ahsahta Press, 2016)
Journals:
Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day
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Barzakh
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BOAAT Journal
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Chiricu
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Codex Journal
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Huizache
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OmniVerse
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Poetry Daily
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Rattapallax
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San Antonio Express-News
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Small Axe
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The Buenos Aires Review
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The Caribbean Writer
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The Texas Review
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Word is Bond
Prizes won: 

2019: New Jersey Council on the Arts Poetry Fellowship. 2018: Amiri Baraka Scholarship, Naropa University. Nominee, Best of the Net. Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award. 2016: Winner, The Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Award. Winner, The Caribbean Writer's Cecile De Jongh Poetry Prize. 2015: Winner, Ahsahta Press Sawtooth Poetry Prize, Pushcart Prize Nominee. 2014:New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry. Pushcart Prize Nominee. Finalist, Beatrice Hawley Award. Finalist, Andres Montoya Poetry Prize. Poet's House Emerging Poets Fellowship. 2011: Winner of the Metlife Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award. 2009: Winner, Alamo Theater Arts Council award for Best Director, Finalist for the Metlife Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award. 2008: The City of San Antonio's November Artist of the Month. 2007: Finalist for the Artist Foundation Literary Arts Prize. 2005: Finalist for the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize.

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Aime Cesaire, Kamau Brathwaite, Pedro Pietri, Zadie Smith, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Audre Lorde, Dr. Grisel Acosta, James Baldwin, Julia De Burgos, Octavia Butler.
What I'm reading now: 
The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vera, Things to Pack on the Way to Everywhere by Dr. Grisel Y. Acosta, Sho by Douglas Kearney, Overpour by Jane Wong, semiautomatic by Evie Shockley, We Want It All by Andrea Abi-Karam & Kay Gabriel

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Latino/Latina/Latinx
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Born in: 
Manhattan, NY
New York
Raised in: 
North Bergen, NJ
New Jersey
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Jul 28, 2021