About the Author

Rigoberto González is the author of five books of poetry, most recently The Book of Ruin (Four Way Books 2019), and Unpeopled Eden, which won the Lambda Literary Award and the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. The recipient of Guggenheim, NEA and USA Rolón fellowships, a NYFA grant in poetry, the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, The Poetry Center Book Award, and the Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award, he is contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine and writes a monthly column for NBC-Latino online. Currently, he is professor of English at Rutgers-Newark, the State University of New Jersey, and the inaugural Stan Rubin Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the Rainier Writing Workshop.

Reviews

"...In the next in a run of extraordinary collections, González faces the grim realities of climate change and considers America's past and future...." From "I Reject Walls" A 2019 Poetry Preview --Craig Morgan Teicher "National Public Radio" (1/21/2019 12:00:00 AM)

"In his fifth full-length collection American Book Award winner Rigoberto González binds narratives of loss and rebellion with the notion that 'a soaring spirit held captive/ becomes reactive.'..." Read the full starred review. -- "Publishers Weekly" (2/25/2019 12:00:00 AM)

"González's The Book of Ruin haunts us from shore to shore, ghosting across time and language, rediscovering humanity's capacity for light in the tomb of catastrophe. These poems are a caution tattooed onto parable and tethered to history's breath. Delivered with unyielding craft and electrifying vision, González has been sent to remind us the fabled ways in which--The crack in the earth, it is us. The crack in the earth, it is ours." --Tyehimba Jess

"In a vital body of work that now encompasses multiple genres, Rigoberto González has been practicing the seer's art of illuminating the social through the personal, the present and the future through the past, and the work of wonder through the work of grieving. The Book of Ruin is his darkest reckoning so far with the violent histories that embitter our current moment and whose damage is propelling us into a scorched hereafter . . ." --Rick Barot