Duke English is delighted to announce that Toby Martinez de las Rivas, a highly accomplished poet with an international profile, will be our Blackburn Artist in Residence for the 2023-24 academic year. He will teach two creative writing courses each semester, beginning with English 110s and a special topics course on “Word and Image” English 290s-4 in the fall.
Martinez de las Rivas’ publications include two full collections. Black Sun (2018) was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection. Terror (2014) was shortlisted for The Portico Prize. His third collection is due in May, 2023. His work is included in Penguin Modern Poets 7 (Penguin, 2018) with Geoffrey Hill and Rowan Evans. He has selections in generational anthologies by Bloodaxe and Carcanet, and poems in key UK and US journals including Poetry, The Paris Review, Poetry Review and Poetry London. In 2014 he won the Wiener Holocaust Library International Book Art Prize for a collaborative book commemorating the victims of the Holocaust which was also shortlisted for the MCBA prize (https://mcbaprize.org/noli-martinez/) and which was exhibited for six months at The Wiener Library, London. He has significant experience in teaching creative writing, most recently at Newcastle University and Reading University.
Duke English completed an international search for a visiting creative writer, and Toby Martinez de las Rivas emerged as a highly regarded poet who is deeply committed to teaching as well as his writing. Professor Mesha Maren, chair of the search committee, reported that:
“Martinez de las Rivas goes out of his way to do community outreach and teaching that points to a robust moral vision regarding the larger picture of what it means to make art and be an artist. He demonstrates an imaginative fury that is deeply invested in the tradition of the sound of English poetry reaching back to the 16th century while pushing the boundaries of what contemporary poetry can do. His ability to talk about the poetic tradition in tandem with current innovation is hugely impressive.”
We are honored to have Professor Martinez de las Rivas with us next year.
