The Poetic Legacy and Radically Inclusive Vision of Rhina P. Espaillat

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel mobilizes diverse perspectives and methodologies to illuminate the expansive oeuvre and influential literary life of Dominican American poet and translator Rhina P. Espaillat (b. 1932). Espaillat did not start publishing her poetry collections until the age of 61; having just completed her ninth volume of verse and critically acclaimed translations of Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur, among other prominent Anglophone poets of the American tradition, she inhabits a noteworthy place as an immigrant poet as well as a thoroughly American literary artist. Espaillat attained early literary celebrity as the youngest poet ever inducted into the Poetry Society of America, following which she entered a three-decade long period of relative obscurity after marrying and taking on the demands of family and her profession. After retiring from teaching public school in New York, she reclaimed her former prestige with a series of award-winning poetry collections, reams of translation work, and passionate leadership as a builder of inclusive poetic communities (namely, the Fresh Meadows Poets and the Powow River Poets). The panel explores the ways in which Espaillat’s Hispanic Caribbean immigrant background, diasporic roots, and memory inform her particular vision of Americanness. This includes the ways the poet’s retention of Spanish—despite receiving all of her schooling in English—enables her linguistically egalitarian vision, and fosters her incessant exploration of her origins, family, bilingualism, and connection to others. The panel also interrogates Espaillat’s lifelong creative arc and her woman-of-color feminism, including her acceptance of common literary tropes and traditions while also subverting them.

Sub Track

• Literature of the Americas

Session Organizer

• Nancy Kang, University of Manitoba

Chair

• Nancy Kang, University of Manitoba

Individual Presentations

• “Más allá del recuerdo hay algo que no se borra": Rhina Espaillat and the Textures of Memory - Conrad James, University of Birmingham

• Loving Robert Frost Minus his National Origin Myth: Rhina Espaillat’s Expansive Americanness - Silvio A Torres-Saillant, Syracuse University

• A Late Flowering: Rhina P. Espaillat - Alfred P Nicol, Independent Scholar

• The Post-Marianismo Moment: The Feminist Negotiations of Rhina Espaillat - Nancy Kang, University of Manitoba