Rosa Alcalá Receives Prestigious Fellowship for Creative Writing Project

Rosa Alcalá, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Creative Writing, was awarded a creative fellowship from the Woodberry Poetry Room (WPR), which will grant her extensive research support for her project “Beyond Opposing Pages: Poets and Their Translators in Performance.” During the 2023-2024 academic year, Alcalá will have access to resources such as special collections from Harvard Libraries, including the Poetry Room, one of the country’s largest literary audiovisual recording collections.

With the help of WPR audio and video recordings, Alcalá will expand her project and "explore how the relationship between poet and translator, between original and translation, and between these and the audience, is revealed beyond the page. By noting the interplay of texts and bodies, the project will consider how a text is shaped not only by its oral rendering but also by the physical presence of the poet and translator, taking into account differences in gender, race, ethnicity, age, gesture, accent, voice, etc.”

Alcalá’s award will also allow her to attend a research visit to Harvard University and a weeklong residency at the T.S. Eliot House in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Woodberry Poetry Room announcement:  https://woodberrypoetryroom.com/?p=7938

Dr. Rosa Alcalá:  https://expertise.utep.edu/node/25158