José Olivarez
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CantoMundo Fellow & Poets House Fellow!
Citizen Illegal is right on time, bringing both empathy and searing critique to the fore as a nation debates the very humanity of the people who built it.
-Eve Ewing, author of Electric Arches José Olivarez is fearless in Citizen Illegal, his debut poetry collection about life as a first-generation Mexican American...Olivarez forces readers to reckon with the very human consequences of our nation's actions at the border and beyond, at a time when those actions have created a real humanitarian crisis. Olivarez's writing is vital in both senses of the word—full of life, and absolutely necessary. -Buzzfeed Books |
José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants and the author of the book of poems, Citizen Illegal a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award and a winner of the 2018 Chicago Review of Books Poetry Prize. It was named a top book of 2018 by NPR and the New York Public Library. In 2018, he was awarded the first annual Author and Artist in Justice Award from the Phillips Brooks House Association.
Along with Felicia Chavez and Willie Perdomo, he is co-editing the forthcoming anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT. He is the co-host of the poetry podcast, The Poetry Gods and a recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, Poets House, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, & the Conversation Literary Festival. José is a master teaching artist. in 2017-2018, he was the Lead Teaching Artist for the Teen Lab Program at the Art Institute in Chicago, IL. In the past, he has led writing workshops & diversity trainings for institutions such as: Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Studio Museum of Harlem, The Adirondack Center for Writing, Inside Out Literary Arts, & many more community organizations & universities. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Paris Review, Chicago Magazine & elsewhere. Twitter: @_joseolivarez Instagram: @_joseolivarez 
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Key Topics
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José Olivarez’s work shines a spotlight on the often-overlooked stories of Mexican-Americans in the Midwest. This identity is illustrated throughout Citizen Illegal in all of its complexities—the connections between Mexican-Americans and labor and the all too familiar feeling of being ni de aqui, ni de alla (not from here, nor there).
-Remezcla Citizen Illegal is a fearless, instrumental, honest collection of poetry. In other words, the book is fire...Keep an eye out for José Olivarez: he might be the poet you need when it’s time to cross a line, destruct borders, and still come out on the other side with your dreams intact. -Willie Perdomo, author of The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon |