2007, Alberto Álvaro Ríos
Alberto Álvaro Ríos, born in 1952 in Nogales, Arizona, is the author of nine books and chapbooks of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir. His books of poems include, most recently, The Theater of Night, along with The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body, a finalist for the National Book Award, Teodoro Luna’s Two Kisses, The Lime Orchard Woman, The Warrington Poems, Five Indiscretions, and Whispering to Fool the Wind. His three collections of short stories are, most recently, The Curtain of Trees, along with Pig Cookies and The Iguana Killer. His memoir about growing up on the Mexico-Arizona border—called Capirotada—won the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award.
Ríos is the recipient of the Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award, the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Walt Whitman Award, the Western States Book Award for Fiction, six Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and fiction, and inclusion in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, as well as over 200 other national and international literary anthologies. His work is regularly taught and translated, and has been adapted to dance and both classical and popular music.
In addition to his award-winning work in poetry, fiction, and memoir, Alberto Ríos has had a lasting influence on a generation of writers as a mentor and teacher through his work in the creative writing program at Arizona State University. Currently, Ríos is a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University, where he has taught for 25 years and where he holds the further distinction of the Katharine C. Turner Endowed Chair in English. Visit his Web site at http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/
