Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, born 1988, is a poet and activist."How poetry helped Marcelo Hernandez Castillo speak out on immigration" by Corinne Segal, ''PBS Newshour'', March 14, 2016 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/poetry/how-poetry-helped-marcelo-hernandez-castillo-speak-out-on-immigration/ He lives in Marysville, California, with his wife and son.

Early life

Marcelo Hernandez Castillo was born in Zacatecas, Mexico. He moved to the United States at five years of age. His family settled in Yuba City, California, where his mother worked at a prune factory off Highway 113. In 2003, Castillo's father was deported. In 2017, the U.S. government allowed his parents to move back to Yuba City and apply for asylum.

Career

He received a BA from

Sacramento State University California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is the eleventh oldest school in the 23-campus California ...

and was the first undocumented student to earn an MFA from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He teaches at the low-residency MFA program in Ashland University, as well as to incarcerated youth in northern California. He has taught as a resident artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, and for low-income high school students in the Upward Bound program at UC Davis. He works within the Yuba-Sutter area as a substitute teacher. Castillo's poems and essays can be found in ''

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

'', ''Drunken Boat'', '' Gulf Coast'', ''

Indiana Review ''Indiana Review'' (''IR'') is a small, student-run literary magazine at Indiana University Bloomington. Founded in 1976, it has a circulation of about 2,000. A biannual review, ''IR'' publishes essays, fiction, graphic arts, interviews, poetry, ...

'', ''Jubilat'', ''Muzzle Mag'', ''

New England Review The ''New England Review'' is an American quarterly literary magazine published by Middlebury College. It was established in 1978 by Sydney Lea and Jay Parini. From 1982 till 1990, the magazine was named ''New England Review & Bread Loaf Quart ...

'', ''The Paris American'', and '' Southern Humanities Review'' among others. Along with C.D. Wright, Castillo has translated the poems of Mexican poet Marcelo Uribe.

Honors

Castillo's manuscript, ''Cenzóntle'', was selected by

Brenda Shaughnessy Brenda Shaughnessy (born 1970) is an American poet. Life Shaughnessy was born in Okinawa and grew up in Southern California. She received her BA in literature and women's studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz and MFA at Columbia Uni ...

as the 2017 winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, from BOA Editions. It won the 2019 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award. His chapbook, ''Dulce'', was selected by

Chris Abani Christopher Abani (born 27 December 1966) is a Nigerian-American and Los Angeles- based author. He says he is part of a new generation of Nigerian writers working to convey to an English-speaking audience the experience of those born and raise ...

Ed Roberson Ed Roberson (born 1939) is an American poet. Life Roberson was born and raised in Pittsburgh and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1970, and later completed graduate work at Goddard College. He then served as a faculty member in th ...

, and Matthew Shenoda for the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Poetry Prize. A Pushcart nominee, Castillo has received fellowships from

CantoMundo CantoMundo is an American literary organization founded in 2009 to support Latino poets and poetry. It hosts an annual poetry workshop dedicated to the creation, documentation, and critical analysis of Latinx poetry. History CantoMundo was founded ...

, the Squaw Valley Writer's Workshop, and the Vermont Studio Center.

Books

* ''Cenzóntle'', (2018) BOA Editions *''Dulce'' (2018), Northwestern University Press *''Children of the Land'', memoir, (2020), Harper

Activism

Castillo was a founder, with poets Javier Zamora and Christopher Soto (AKA Loma), of the Undocupoets campaign which eliminated citizenship requirements from major first poetry book prizes in the United States. With the Sibling Rivalry Press Foundation and Amazon Literary Partnership, the Undocupoets Fellowship awards two $500 fellowships to former or current undocumented poets in support of poetry-related costs.

References

External links

Poetry and Profile
at

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...

website
profile of the author
on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

Biographical letter poem
at the

Letras Latinas Letras Latinas is the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame's Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), with an office on campus in South Bend, Indiana, as well as Washington, D.C. It strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study ...

Blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Castillo, Marcelo Hernandez 21st-century American poets Living people American male poets American poets of Mexican descent California State University, Sacramento alumni Hispanic and Latino American poets Immigrant rights activists Writers from Zacatecas Poets from California 21st-century Mexican poets Poets from Michigan University of Michigan alumni Mexican male poets 21st-century American male writers Year of birth missing (living people) Mexican LGBT poets American LGBT poets LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people Mexican emigrants to the United States