By Brian Dunlap

Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is the author of Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, 2017) a poetry collection that confronts and refutes the violence of erasure and assimilation, rooted in the borderlands of her birth. This violence and erasure is a physical space where “the speaker confronts her life in the eternal hallway of the subconscious,” as poet Sara Borjas says in her review of the book. For this confrontation and refutation Villarreal’s poetry collection was named, earlier this month, as a finalist for the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, which recognizes the work of a poet of promise with $10,000.

“My heart is exploding garnets. My heart is exploding cardinals. Thank you so much for reading my poems. Tyree Daye, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Justin Phillip Reed, Javier Zamora, CA Conrad, Terrance Hayes, Brenda Hillman, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Craig Santos Perez: congratulations. You are mighty,” Villarreal posted on Facebook about the news. The Kate Tufts Discovery Poetry Award is the sister award to the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, one of the most prestigious poetry awards in the country, that was created in 1992 by Kate Tufts to honor her late husband, who held various executive positions in L.A.-area shipyards and wrote and published poetry.

Villarreal is currently a PhD student in Creative Writing and Literature at USC and lives in L.A. with her young son. She was born and raised in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley to formerly undocumented immigrant parents from Mexico. This Valley and her childhood there shaped the topics and themes she writes about in Beast Meridian, in ways that push back against the stages where whiteness erases her personal, and her people’s Latinx or Chicanx experiences. I first saw Villarreal perform at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park last fall and found her words both powerful and engaging. She’s also performed at other venues across the Southland.

Congratulations to Vanessa Angélica Villarreal for being a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Poetry Award!