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Home > Lourdes Vazquez

Lourdes Vazquez [1]

Listed as: 
Fiction Writer, Poet
Public address: 
NY
New York US
Email: 
sietevas@yahoo.com
Bio: 

"When did you begin writing literary works?
I began writing a bit late compared to other writers of my generation. I had a scholarship to study dance, but it ran out. I danced for a while until I developed an injury in my back. That experience pushed me to consider other ways of expressing myself. I polished my skills in a heterogeneous group of artists, poets, and musicians, and I would sit and listen to their discussions, debates, dialogues; but it wasn’t until I heard the poets read and “perform” their works that I realized what I was capable of doing.

-Which was the first genre you explored? Why?
Poetry. In poetry, I found a compact resource in which metaphor, which remains to this day an enigma, insists upon uncovering dissonant signs. Poetry is also a communicative vessel in which I can find a way to immerse myself in its subversive plasma. Poetry is a way of reinterpreting things we wish to distance ourselves from. I have worked a great deal with poetic prose, and from there I have been able to move comfortably towards short stories and essays." Part of: "Un punto de vista diferente: entrevista de Lourdes Vázquez por Selfa Chew.” Bilingual Review 28(3) (September-December 2004-2007) : 265-268.

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
In which languages are you fluent?: 
Spanish
Website: 
http://lookingazul.blogspot.com/ [2]
Prizes won: 

She was the winner of the Juan Rulfo Short Story Award (France) in 2002. In 2004, her Bestiary: Selected Poems 1986-1997 received an Honorable Mention in the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Awards. Bestiary was selected also as one of the "May-June 2004 Picks" by Small Press Review. Her novel Sin ti no soy yo (second edition) is part of The New Essential Guide to Spanish Reading (2012), and its English translation, Not Myself Without You, was selected as part of "2013 Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch". She was awarded an Honorable Mention for the National Poetry Series 2014 Paz Prize for Poetry as well as an Honorable Mention for the Premio Nacional Luis Lloréns Torres, Casa de los Poetas, 2014 (PR). She was selected as Judge for the BorderSenses Literary Prize in Fiction, 2014.

Identifies as: 
Latino/Latina/Latinx
Puerto Rican
Prefers to work with: 
Any

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Links
[1] https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/lourdes_vazquez [2] http://lookingazul.blogspot.com/