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Richard Blanco | |
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| Born | Ricardo Blanco February 15, 1968 Madrid, Spain |
| Occupation | |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | Florida International University |
| Notable works | "One Today" The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood How to Love a Country For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey Until We Could Film Looking for the Gulf Motel Directions to the Beach of the Dead City of a Hundred Fires Nowhere but Here Boston Strong: The Poem |
Richard Blanco (born February 15, 1968) is an American poet, public speaker, author, playwright, and civil engineer. He is the fifth poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration, having read the poem "One Today" for Barack Obama's second inauguration. He is the first immigrant, the first Latino, the first openly gay person and at the time the youngest person to be the U.S. inaugural poet.[1] In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Blanco's books include Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems, How to Love a Country; City of a Hundred Fires, which received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press; Directions to The Beach of the Dead, recipient of the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center; and Looking for The Gulf Motel, recipient of the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award. He has also authored the memoirs For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, winner of the Lambda Literary Prize.
In addition, Blanco has collaborated with Caldecott Medal renown cartoonist, author and illustrator Dav Pilkey on One Today illustrated children's book. He also partnered with photographer Jacob Hessler on the limited edition fine press poetry book Boundaries, with artist John Bailey on series of Ekphrastic paintings titled a Place of Mind, and with Ramio Fernandez on the photography book Cuba Then Archived September 18, 2021, at the Wayback Machine.
He has been a professor, having taught at Georgetown University, American University, Central Connecticut State University, Wesleyan University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Colby College, Carlow University, and currently at Florida International University. His passion is to demystify poetry teaching to all ages including grade school to nursing homes, at diverse writers workshops (e.g. Omega Institute, Maine Media Workshops), correctional institutions, and several non-profit organizations including the Writer's Center.[2][3] He serves as the first Education Ambassador for the Academy of American Poets.[4]
- ^ Bruce, Mary (January 21, 2013). "'One Today': Full Text of Richard Blanco Inaugural Poem". ABC News. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- ^ Sienna M Potts: Siennese.com. "Poetry of Place, Home, and Identity". Richard Blanco. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
- ^ "PEN American Center - Richard Blanco". Pen.org. October 16, 2006. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
- ^ "An Evening of Poetry with Richard Blanco". www.cmc.edu. September 24, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2019.