Nicaraguan-American Authors Making Strides in the Literary World
According to the Pew Research Center, Latinx who identify as Nicaraguans are the 12th largest Latinx group in the U.S. and total 464,000. Despite their relatively small numbers, they have succeeded in literary endeavors.
Francisco Aragón is the author of the poetry collections, After Rubén, Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press) and Glow of Our Sweat (Scapegoat Press). He is also the editor of the award-winning anthology The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press). His poems and commentary on poetry have appeared in a range of anthologies and journals, including Crab Orchard Review,Great River Review, Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas, Notre Dame Review, Pilgrimage, and the website of the Poetry Foundation, among others. Since 2004, Aragón has directed the Institute’s literary initiative, Letras Latinas, whose programs are national in scope.
An advocate of education, who has lived in Nicaragua, Los Angeles, and now in Panama, Silvio Sirias is the author of Bernardo and the Virgin (2005), Meet Me under the Ceiba (2009), winner of the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize for Best Novel, The Saint of Santa Fe, and The Season of Stories.
Leon Salvatierra is a poet from Nicaragua who migrated to the U.S. at the age of 15. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Davis (June 2020) and a Ph.D. in Latin American Literatures with an emphasis on U.S. Latinx literature from UC Berkeley (2014). He has published a book of poetry, Al Norte, with the University of Nicaragua UNAN-León (2012). The collection of poems, written in Spanish, explores the transnational experience of Central American migrants in their journey to the U.S. A bilingual edition, To the North, Al norte, translated by Javier O. Huerta, was published by University of Nevada Press (2022).
Adela Najarro is the author of My Childrens, Split Geography, Twice Told Over. She co-edited with Jennifer Fletcher and Hetty Yelland, Fostering Habits of Mind in Today’s Students: A New Approach to Developmental Education. Her poetry has appeared in The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, and journals including Porter Gulch Review, Acentos Review, BorderSenses, Feminist Studies, Puerto del Sol, Nimrod International Journal of Poetry & Prose, Notre Dame Review, Blue Mesa Review, and Crab Orchard Review.
