The Alliance of Artists Communities recently named poet Francisco Aragn a recipient of the Midwestern Voices and Visions award. A faculty member in the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, he was one of seven award recipients from a pool of 115 nominated artists and writers.
Funded by the Joyce Foundation, the Midwestern Voices and Visions award acts as a patron for highly talented minority artists in the Great Lakes region. Aragn will spend September 2007 focusing exclusively on his writing at the residential artist community of the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Red Wing, Minn.
“My work at the Institute for Latino Studies consists, in large part, of being a champion and advocate of other__Latino and Latina writers,” Aragn said. “The demands of the job … have made it very difficult to devote sustained, quality time to my own work. The timing of this award could not have been better. It’s very gratifying to know that there are foundations and initiatives that support artists from under-represented communities.”
Aragn directs the Letras Latinas literary program at Notre Dame and founded the Andrs Montoya Poetry Prize, the first contest in the United States to encourage emerging Latino poets. In addition to his own books, including the “Puerta del Sol” collection, Aragn has published in several anthologies. He currently is editing a compilation of Latino poetry scheduled to be published later this year.
Contact: Francisco Aragn, 574-631-2882, faragon@nd.edu_
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on January 18, 2007.