Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, has advocated for Latinx literature since 2004. Founding director Francisco Aragón developed a number of programs that have amplified the work of Latinx writers, especially poets. Over the years, he’s counted on the crucial assistance of students—graduate and undergraduate alike—as well as fellow faculty. These efforts have built up our community and created valuable resources like The Oral History Project and Letras Latinas Blog. Letras Latinas has also cultivated longstanding collaborations that support the publication of Latinx writers such as The Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize with University of Notre Dame Press, AKRILICA with Noemi Press, and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Collaborative.
Recently, with the support of the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, Letras Latinas has been able to expand its personnel with the addition of Poetry Coalition Fellow Brent Ameneyro in September 2022, and expand further this past January thanks to a capacity-building grant from the Academy of American Poets, which allowed Laura Villareal to join the team.
Where this space is concerned—thanks to an Equity in Verse grant from the Poetry Foundation—we’ve been able to rejuvenate Letras Latinas Blog and build a new home for content, and finance our literary columns, Warp & Weft and A House of Our Own—a home that complements Letras Latinas programming.
Letras Latinas Blog 2 (LLB2) will feature new original articles, reframed work from our archive, and contributions from the greater Latinx literary community. We hope this hub for Latinx voices will become a staple in your digital library.
Letras Latinas is on the cusp of celebrating its 20th anniversary. We look forward to sharing our plans for 2024 with you here on LLB2.
Laura Villareal & Brent Ameneyro