VCCA Fellow and Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco took on what he described in an NPR interview as in some ways “the easiest and also the hardest” assignment of his career writing the poem “Matters Of The Sea” or “Cosas Del Mar” in honor of the official reopening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana. Richard, who is no neophyte when it comes to important state occasions, having been the inaugural poet at President Obama’s second inauguration was at the embassy to read the poem.
Blanco’s work has appeared in
The Nation, Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Triquarterly Review, and several anthologies including, The Best American Poetry 2000, Breadloaf Anthology and American Poetry: The Next Generation. He has been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and at various conferences and venues including the Miami Book Fair, the Southern Writers Conference, and the poetry recipient of a Florida Artist Fellowship. A builder of bridges and poems, Blanco received both a bachelors of science degree in Civil Engineering and a Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Florida International University. Blanco was Assistant Professor and Poet in Residence at Central Connecticut State University where he taught Creative Writing and U.S. Latina/o Literature.