Rane Arroyo
Encyclopedia
Rane Ramón Arroyo was an American
poet, playwright, and scholar of Puerto Rican
descent who wrote numerous books and received many literary awards. He was a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Toledo
in Ohio
. His work deals extensively with issues of immigration
, Latino
culture, and homosexuality
. Arroyo was openly
gay
and frequently wrote self-reflexive, autobiographical texts. He was the long-term partner of the American poet Glenn Sheldon.
, Illinois
, to Puerto Rican immigrant parents. He began his career as a performance artist in the Chicago art galleries of the 1980s and eventually expanded into poetry, for which he has become best known.
Arroyo earned his Ph.D. in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh
where he wrote his dissertation on issues surrounding the "Chicago Renaissance" that parallel the building of a contemporary Latino literary canon. He served as the co-Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs
(AWP) and as the co-Chair for the 2009 Chicago Conference.
His last public poetry reading was at SUNY/Brockport on March 31, 2010. His last three words to the public at that reading were: "Live. Then Write." Although it does not appear on the electronic version of the DVD Brockport made, it's quite audible on the YouTube clip immediately following a sampling of a Lady Gaga song which ended his poetry reading. Those three words were words he not only lived by but demanded of his creative writing students.
Arroyo died in the early morning of May 7, 2010 due to a cerebral hemorrhage.
Betsy A. Sandlin published an article on him ("Poetry Always Demands All My Ghosts: The Haunted and Haunting Poetry of Rane Arroyo") in a landmark issue of CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies on Puerto Rican queer studies. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
has also written about his work.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet, playwright, and scholar of Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
descent who wrote numerous books and received many literary awards. He was a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Toledo
University of Toledo
The University of Toledo is a public university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. The Carnegie Foundation classified the university as "Doctoral/Research Extensive."-National recognition:...
in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. His work deals extensively with issues of immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
culture, and homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
. Arroyo was openly
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and frequently wrote self-reflexive, autobiographical texts. He was the long-term partner of the American poet Glenn Sheldon.
Biography
Rane Ramón Arroyo was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, to Puerto Rican immigrant parents. He began his career as a performance artist in the Chicago art galleries of the 1980s and eventually expanded into poetry, for which he has become best known.
Arroyo earned his Ph.D. in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
where he wrote his dissertation on issues surrounding the "Chicago Renaissance" that parallel the building of a contemporary Latino literary canon. He served as the co-Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs is a literary organization whose mission is "to foster literary talent and achievement, to advance the art of writing as essential to a good education, and to serve the makers, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing."-Members:AWP...
(AWP) and as the co-Chair for the 2009 Chicago Conference.
His last public poetry reading was at SUNY/Brockport on March 31, 2010. His last three words to the public at that reading were: "Live. Then Write." Although it does not appear on the electronic version of the DVD Brockport made, it's quite audible on the YouTube clip immediately following a sampling of a Lady Gaga song which ended his poetry reading. Those three words were words he not only lived by but demanded of his creative writing students.
Arroyo died in the early morning of May 7, 2010 due to a cerebral hemorrhage.
Critical reception
Arroyo was included in the Heath Anthology of American Literature published in 2006; this book is commonly taught in English college classes in the U.S. He won the 2004–05 John Ciardi Poetry Prize for The Portable Famine; the 1997 Carl Sandburg Poetry Prize for his book The Singing Shark; and a 1997 Pushcart Prize for the poem "Breathing Lessons" as published in Ploughshares. Other awards include: Stonewall Books Chapbook Prize; The Sonora Review Chapbook Prize, the Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Prize, and a 2007 Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award in Poetry.Betsy A. Sandlin published an article on him ("Poetry Always Demands All My Ghosts: The Haunted and Haunting Poetry of Rane Arroyo") in a landmark issue of CENTRO: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies on Puerto Rican queer studies. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is a gay Puerto Rican author, scholar, and performer. He is better known as Larry La Fountain. He has received several awards for his creative writing and scholarship as well as for his work with Latino and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students...
has also written about his work.
Books of poetry
- Columbus's Orphan. Arcadia, Fl.: JVC books, 1993. ISBN 1878116177
- The Singing Shark. Tempe, AZ: Bilingual Press, 1996. ISBN 0927534614
- Pale Ramón. Cambridge, Mass.: Zoland Books, 1998. ISBN 0944072941
- Home Movies of Narcissus. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2002. ISBN 0816521956
- The Portable Famine. Kansas City, Mo.: BkMk Press, 2005. ISBN 1886157537
- The Roswell Poems. La Porte, Ind.: WordFarm, 2008. ISBN 9781602260016
- Same-Sex Séances. New Sins Press, 2008. ISBN 0979695619
- The Buried Sea: New & Selected Poems. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. ISBN 9780816527168
- The Sky's Weight. Turning Point Press, 2009. ISBN 1934999733
Book of short stories
- How to Name a Hurricane. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2005. ISBN 0816524602
Performed plays
- The Amateur Virgin, Buddha and the Señorita, Tiara Tango, Emily Dickinson in Bandages, A Family in Figleaves, Prayers for a Go-Go Boy, Honeymoon Rehearsals, House with Black Windows (with the poet Glenn Sheldon), Red House On Fire, and Horatio: An Inquisition
Published plays
- Dancing at Funerals: Selected Plays. Tokio and Toronto: ahadada books, 2010. ISBN 9780981274447
- Buddha and the Señorita, Sex with the Man-in-the-Moon, Spanish Moon, Bed But No Breakfast, Fade to White (with the poets Glenn Sheldon and Diane Williams), Honeymoon Rehearsals, and A Lesson in Writing Love Letters
Awards and honors
- 1985 Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. Other Couples: Three One-Act Plays
- 1991 1st Prize, Hart Crane Memorial Award, Kent State University, for the poem “Le Mal de Siam”
- 1992 2nd place, Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award for poem “The Carlos Poems #1”
- 1993 Winner of the George Houston Bass Drama Award, Brown University’s Rites and Reason Theater, for the play The Amateur Virgin
- 1993 Winner of the Sonora Review/University of Arizona’s National Chapbook Contest for The Red Bed poems
- 1997 Carl Sandburg Poetry Award for The Singing Shark
- 1997 Pushcart Prize for poem, “Breathing Lessons,” published in Ploughshares
- 1997 Winner of the Stonewall Books National Chapbook Contest for The Naked Thief
- 1998 Arts Commission of Greater Toledo Individual Artist Grant for "Blood Never Rusts", an experimental story
- 1999 Honorable Mention, Crossing Borders 1999 Contest, Wharf Rat Theater, The Darkness after a Millennium of Blondes
- 2001 Finalist, 7th Annual West Coast Ten-Minute Playwriting Contest "Lord Byron, The God”
- 2001–02 Arts Commission of Greater Toledo Individual Artist Grant for Creative Non-fiction Essay on Toledo, “Glass Words”
- 2004 Finalist for The Ohioana Award for Home Movies of Narcissus
- 2004 Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize/1st Place for Winter Wear (The Immigrants)
- 2004–05 John Ciardi Poetry Prize for the poetry collection, The Portable Famine, included publication
- 2005 Included in the prestigious Heath Anthology of American Literature: Volume E, Contemporary Period: 1945 to the Present (5th Edition)Editor: Dr. Paul Lauter, Houghton Mifflin, 2005: 2989–2995, introductory essay by Dr. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes (U of Michigan—Ann Arbor)
- 2006 Caesar Chavez Visiting Writer, Saginaw Valley State University
- 2006 ForeWord Poetry Book of The Year Finalist for The Portable Famine
- 2006 Independent Publishers Awards finalist nominee for How to Name a Hurricane
- 2006 Nominated for a Pushcart Prize (by Cream City Review) for What Daniel and I Talk About When We’re Naked
- 2007 Included in Contemporary Authors. Also in The Latino Encyclopedia
- 2007 Nominated for a Pushcart Prize (by Poems & Plays) for A Lesson in Writing Love Letters, a one-act play
- 2007–08 Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award in Poetry/State Grant
- 2009 Inducted into the Ohio Center of the Book
- 2009 Nominated for the 15th time for a Pushcart Prize by Saranac Review for The Closet
- 2009 Nominated for the 16th time for a Pushcart Prize by Aperture for “
- 2009 The International Latino Literary Prize: Honorable Mention in Poetry: The Buried Sea: New and Selected Poems
See also
- List of Puerto Rican writers
- List of Latin American writers
- List of Famous Puerto Ricans
- Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States
- American poetry
- LGBT literatureLGBT literatureGay literature is a collective term for literature produced by or for the LGBT community, or which involves characters, plot lines or themes portraying male homosexual behavior.-Subgenres:...
- Puerto Rican literature