Emanuel Xavier, Poet

b. May 3, 1971  

"Being Latino and gay gives me much to write about. Anything that oppresses us as artists is always great fodder for art."

Emanuel Xavier is a poet, author and editor. He is one of the most significant openly gay Latino spoken word artists of his generation. 

Xavier was born in Brooklyn, New York, the child of an Ecuadorian mother and a Puerto Rican father who abandoned the family before his son was born. When Xavier was three, he was sexually abused by a family member. At 16, when Xavier came out to his mother, she threw him out of the house.

A homeless gay teen on the streets of New York, Xavier soon turned to sex and drugs for money. He became a hustler at the West Side Highway piers and sold drugs in gay clubs. After landing a job at a gay bookstore, A Different Light, Xavier began to write poetry and perform as a spoken word artist.

"Pier Queen" (1997), Xavier’s self-published poetry collection, established him in the New York underground arts scene. "Christ Like" (1999), Xavier’s novel, was the first coming of age story by a gay Nuyorican (Puerto Rican living in New York) and earned him a Lambda Literary Award nomination. Fellow author Jaime Manrique said, "Once in a generation, a new voice emerges that makes us see the world in a dazzling new light. Emanuel Xavier is that kind of writer."

"Americano" (2002), another poetry collection and Xavier’s first official published work, advanced his prominence within the literary community of color. Xavier edited "Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry" (2005), for which he received a second Lambda Literary Award nomination. 

In 2005, Xavier was the victim of a random attack by a group of young men. As a result of the beating, he lost all hearing in his right ear, but continued to write and perform.

Xavier reflects on the assault in his poem "Passage":



Bibliography

• “Emanuel Xavier Bio.” Emanuel Xavier Official Site. 22 June 2010.
• "Emanuel Xavier.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 22 June 2010.
• Johnson, Ramon. "Profile of Emanuel Xavier." About: Gay Life. 21 May 2010.

Books by Emanuel Xavier

• Pier Queen (1997)
• Americano (2002)
• Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry (2005)
• MARIPOSAS: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry (2008)
• Christ Like (2009)
• If Jesus Were Gay & other poems (2010)

Article about Emanuel Xavier

• A&U Magazine Cover Story on Emanuel Xavier (2010)

Recordings by Emanuel Xavier

• Legendary: The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier (2009)

Videos of Emanuel Xavier

• Emanuel Xavier on Def Poetry: Nueva York
• Emanuel Xavier on Def Poetry: Tradiciónes
• Legendary (The E-Mix) Music Video

Websites

• Emanuel Xavier Official Website 

Related articles

• City Room: Using Poetry as a Way to Survive (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)

Fenton Johnson, Writer

Fenton Johnson is the author of two novels, Crossing the River and Scissors, Paper, Rock, as well as Geography of the Heart: A Memoir and Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey among Christian and Buddhist Monks, a meditation on what it means for a skeptic to have and keep faith. He has contributed stories and cover essays to Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and many literary quarterlies, and received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more. He is on the faculty of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona.

His most recent book Keeping Faith: A Skeptic's Journey draws on time spent living as a member of the monastic communities of the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky and the San Francisco Zen Center as a means to examining what it means to a skeptic to have and keep faith. Keeping Faith weaves frank conversations with Trappist and Buddhist monks with a history of the contemplative life and meditations from Johnson’s experience of the virtue we call faith. It received the 2004 Kentucky Literary Award for Nonfiction and the 2004 Lambda Literary Award for best GLBT creative nonfiction.

Johnson has served as a contributor to Harper's Magazine, the New York Times Magazine, and many literary quarterlies, and has received numerous literary awards, among them a James Michener Fellowship from the Iowa Writers Workshop and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in both fiction and creative nonfiction. His writing also received a Northern California Book Reviewers nomination for best fiction (for Scissors, Paper, Rock, Washington Square Press) and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Awards for best creative nonfiction (for Geography of the Heart, Scribner). He contributes occasional commentaries to National Public Radio and has written the narration for several award-winning public television documentaries and personal films. He serves on the faculty of the creative writing program at the University of Arizona and is currently completing The Man Who Loved Birds: A Novel and is a 2007 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow.

He has received awards from the Wallace Stegner and James Michener Fellowships in Fiction and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in both fiction and creative nonfiction. He has also received a Kentucky Literary Award, two Lambda Literary Awards for best creative nonfiction, as well as the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award for best gay/lesbian nonfiction. He received a 2007 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation to support completion of his third novel and to begin research and writing on a nonfiction project.

May 3: Emanuel Xavier, Latino Poet

b. May 3, 1971  

"Being Latino and gay gives me much to write about. Anything that oppresses us as artists is always great fodder for art."

Emanuel Xavier is a poet, author and editor. He is one of the most significant openly gay Latino spoken word artists of his generation. 

Xavier was born in Brooklyn, New York, the child of an Ecuadorian mother and a Puerto Rican father who abandoned the family before his son was born. When Xavier was three, he was sexually abused by a family member. At 16, when Xavier came out to his mother, she threw him out of the house.

A homeless gay teen on the streets of New York, Xavier soon turned to sex and drugs for money. He became a hustler at the West Side Highway piers and sold drugs in gay clubs. After landing a job at a gay bookstore, A Different Light, Xavier began to write poetry and perform as a spoken word artist.

"Pier Queen" (1997), Xavier’s self-published poetry collection, established him in the New York underground arts scene. "Christ Like" (1999), Xavier’s novel, was the first coming of age story by a gay Nuyorican (Puerto Rican living in New York) and earned him a Lambda Literary Award nomination. Fellow author Jaime Manrique said, "Once in a generation, a new voice emerges that makes us see the world in a dazzling new light. Emanuel Xavier is that kind of writer."

"Americano" (2002), another poetry collection and Xavier’s first official published work, advanced his prominence within the literary community of color. Xavier edited "Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry" (2005), for which he received a second Lambda Literary Award nomination. 

In 2005, Xavier was the victim of a random attack by a group of young men. As a result of the beating, he lost all hearing in his right ear, but continued to write and perform.

Xavier reflects on the assault in his poem "Passage":



Bibliography
“Emanuel Xavier Bio.” Emanuel Xavier Official Site. 22 June 2010.
"Emanuel Xavier.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 22 June 2010.
Johnson, Ramon. "Profile of Emanuel Xavier." About: Gay Life. 21 May 2010.
Books by Emanuel Xavier
Pier Queen (1997)
Americano (2002)
Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry (2005)
MARIPOSAS: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry (2008)
Christ Like (2009)
If Jesus Were Gay & other poems (2010)
Article about Emanuel Xavier
A&U Magazine Cover Story on Emanuel Xavier (2010)
Recordings by Emanuel Xavier
Legendary: The Spoken Word Poetry of Emanuel Xavier (2009)
Videos of Emanuel Xavier
Emanuel Xavier on Def Poetry: Nueva York
Emanuel Xavier on Def Poetry: Tradiciónes
Legendary (The E-Mix) Music Video
Websites
Emanuel Xavier Official Website 

Related articles

• City Room: Using Poetry as a Way to Survive (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)