ASU's CantoMundo annual retreat starts May 30

CantoMundo and Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University announced the 2024 CantoMundo retreat at ASU’s Tempe campus, May 30-June 2.

Since 2009, CantoMundo, a literary arts organization, has celebrated and supported Latinx poets through its fellowship program and annual retreat, a press release explained.

Norma Elia Cantú, professor in the Humanities at Trinity University and a CantoMundo co-founder and advisory board member, stated in the release that when CantoMundo was founded, “we imagined a home for Latinx poets and poetry, a place where our voices and our stories would be heard.”

“In gratitude, we go forward, aware of the power of poetry to change lives, to change the world,” Cantú stated.

After a pandemic-related hiatus, CantoMundo is returning for its first in-person retreat since 2019; moving forward, it will be housed at the Piper Center at ASU.

CantoMundo Director Jacqueline Balderrama noted in the release, “There’s so much geographic significance for CantoMundo to have a home in the Southwest and at ASU, which was recently designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution.”

Featured faculty for the 2024 retreat are nationally recognized and award-winning poets Rodrigo Toscano and Yesenia Montilla. The keynote speaker is acclaimed poet and translator of trans experience Roque Raquel Salas Rivera.

Toscano and Montilla will read from their work on Friday, May 31, and Saturday, June 1, respectively. The readings are free and open to the public, the release stated.

Numerous Latina/o/x poets from across the country, all current CantoMundo Fellows, will join the featured readers. These poets are Aldo Amparán, Diannely Antigua, Oliver Baez Bendorf, María Fernanda, Cristina Correa, Maritza N. Estrada, Aerik Francis, Paul Hlava Ceballos, Antonio López, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Florencia Milito, Sebastián H. Páramo, Emily Pérez, Gabriel Ramirez, Reyes Ramirez, Kimberly Reyes, Iliana Rocha, Roberto F. Santiago, Michael Torres, Emma Trelles and David Joez Villaverde.

The readings are sponsored by the Hawthornden Foundation, Academy of American Poets, Poetry Foundation, University of Arizona Poetry Center and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

For information, contact Jacqueline Balderrama at cantomundo@asu.edu. Visit CantoMundo at cantomundo.org and Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at piper.asu.edu.