Biography
Antonieta Villamil
2016 Update.
200 word bio.
ANTONIETA VILLAMIL is an international award winning bilingual
poet with over 11 published books that brings a cross-cultural experience,
performing her poetry in a reading and singing dynamic fusion. She focuses her writing on the forgotten ones
and honors them with a persistence that compels us to hear their voices. She directs
the poetry review and salon “Poesía Féstival” at the literary center Beyond Baroque
that brings poetry to the under-served community of native Spanish speakers in
Los Angeles. Her latest book "Arcana de los Dominios Imaginantes",
published by AVEditor in 2015, won The International Latino Book Award 2016.
The
Cervantes Institute of New York and Literacy Now awarded the “14 International
Latino Book Award 2012” for her book “Soluna En Bosque: Conjuros Para Invocar
El Amor”, the “International Poetry Award Gastón Baquero” in Spain with “Acantilados
Del Sueño”.
Recent anthologies:
"The Border Crossed Us: An Anthology to End Apartheid", edited by Mark
Lipman, "Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising From The Cultural Quakes and Shifts
of Los Angeles", introduction by Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J.
Rodriguez, "Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond" edited by
Suzanne Lummis. Villamil appears in the documentary Voices in Wartime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sxkI9Ix5as.
ANTONIETA VILLAMIL is an international award winning bilingual poet, writer, singer and editor with over 11 published books. She focuses her writing on the forgotten ones and honors them with a persistence that compels us to hear their voices. She directs the review and salon “Poesía Féstival” that brings poetry to the under-served community of native Spanish speakers in Los Angeles.
Villamil brings a cross-cultural experience. She presents poetry with a mixture of readings and brief stanzas in an eclectic style using voice and deep song of a multitude of cultures. She speaks poetry as if it were a musical score. The result is an alchemical mixture of rhythms and voices from India, the Middle East, Spain, to the Latino-African, and indigenous peoples of America.
The Cervantes Institute of New York and Literacy Now awarded her the “14 International Latino Book Award, Best Book of Poetry”, and she won the “International Poetry Award Gastón Baquero” in Spain. The documentary “Voices In Wartime”, features her next to Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, among others. Her poetry appears alongside Amiri Baraka, Luis J. Rodriguez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others, selected by Jack Hirschman for the anthology “Revolutionary Poets Brigade, Volume I”, edited and published by Mark Lipman.
Poetry in Motion of The Poetry Society of America published her poem “Green Shoes / Zapatos Verdes” on poster and bookmark form. Antonieta Villamil is available for Spanish-English, bilingual book presentations, poetry festivals, poetry readings, book fairs, and literary performances.
—Poets&Writers.
—Poets&Writers.
ANTONIETA VILLAMIL Internationally recognized award winning bilingual poet, editor, translator, eclectic cante singer and cultural promoter, with over 15 books in print, focuses her writing on the forgotten ones and honors them with a persistence that compels us to hear their voices.
Antonieta Villamil sings her poetry and delivers a strong social conscious message. She directs POESÍA FÉSTIVAL (Anual Poetry Review, monthly cultural salon with poetry workshop and reading circle and an annual Poetry Festival) in Spanish at the literary arts center Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles.
Antonieta Villamil was chosen next to the North American poets Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Randall Jarrel, Emily Warn, Saul Williams, Sam Hamill, among others; for the documentary film and anthology edited by Andrew Himes and presented in 2005, “Voices In Wartime”. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sxkI9Ix5as.
Antonieta Villamil´s poetry has been published in anthologies alongside poets like Amiri Baraka, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jack Hirschman. Most recently she was invited to perform at the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IblJy8Bv4k
Web page: http://sfipf.org/poets/antonieta-villamil/.
Winner of the “14th International Latino Book Award 2012” in The United States, with SOLUNA EN BOSQUE for Best Book of Poetry in Spanish in The United States. The 13th International Latino Book Award 2011 for the full edition of “ACANTILADOS DEL SUEÑO / Sea Cliffs of Dream". In June 2001, "Sea Cliffs of Dream" won the "International Poetry Award Gaston Baquero" in Madrid, Spain.
Julian Palley writer, essayist and critic of the PEN West association of the USA, wrote in 1998 that “…she is an extraordinary promise in the field of literature. Not only promise: The poetry of Antonieta Villamil is a mature contribution of the highest quality.”
Inspired in Hölderlin’s axiom: “THE POETS FOUND THAT WHICH PERSISTS”, Antonieta Villamil brings a cross-cultural experience to all she does. She presents poetry with a mixture of readings and brief stanzas in an eclectic style using voice and deep song. She speaks poetry as if it were a musical score. The result is an alchemical mixture of rhythms and voices from the Middle-East, India, Spain, Africa, to the Latino African, and indigenous peoples of America. She focuses her writing on the forgotten ones and honors them with a persistence that compels us to hear their voices.
Antonieta Villamil is available for poetry readings, poetry song performance, book presentations, book fairs, seminar-panel, literary congress, workshops, poetry festivals, poetry and multimedia performance
PUBLISHED BOOKS: Sea Cliffs of Dream (2001), (2010), Muisca Phoenix (2009), (2012), In Place of Dreams (2008), Dialogue of Insignificant Things (2007), SunMoon Inside Forest (Conjures to Invoke Love) (2006), (2011), Paper Swallow, (2005), (2011), Lament for The Poet (2004), Monologues of the Transgressor (2003), Brew of the Invincible (2002), Country Into the Wind (2005), Malinche’s Trade (2012), One Wound for Another (2012). Thirteen (13) unpublished books including three books written originally in English.
HONORS: The 14th International Latino Book Award 2012 in The United States, for best book of poetry: “SOLUNA EN BOSQUE: Conjures to invoke love”. The 13th International Latino Book Award 2011 to the complete edition of “ACANTILADOS DEL SUEÑO”, given to a book of Spanish poetry in The United States. In June 2001 a short version of “Los Acantilados del Sueño” won the “International Poetry Prize Gaston Baquero” in Madrid, Spain.
AWARDS TO HER POETRY WRITTEN IN ENGLISH: Prose Poems Project Prize in 2002 for “Migration Fields” in Los Angeles; Poetry in Motion Project to “Green Shoes”, a poem showcased on buses and trains by Poetry Society of America in the United States and the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize Finalist in 2001 with “The animal you seek” in Los Angeles California.
ANTHOLOGIES: Her poetry was selected by the poet laureate of San Francisco Jack Hirschman for the anthology “Revolutionary Poets Brigade, Volume I”, edited and published by Mark Lipman, for the testimony book “One Wound For Another”, with an introduction by Elena Poniatowska, for the anthologies “Pinceladas Literarias Hispanoamericanas” edited by Gloria Bautista Gutierrez, published in New York (2005), “Women Looking South,” South American poets in the USA, published by Torremozas in Spain.
PRESENT ACTIVITY: Director of “Poesía Féstival”: Annual printed review and cultural salon at the literary center Beyond Baroque in Venice California. She established in the United States the independent poetry press Caza de Poesía on the International Poetry Day, March 21, 2003 as an act of protest against war, violence, occupation, homelessness, disappearance and/or any forms of aggression from any Power of State against The People and/or from one human being to another.
She is an Honorary Member of the Alpha Mu Gamma Society of the National College of Foreign Languages at the University of La Sierra in Riverside, California. Julian Palley writer, essayist and critic of the PEN West association of the USA, wrote in 1998 that “…she is an extraordinary promise in the field of literature. Not only promise: The poetry of Antonieta Villamil is a mature contribution of the highest quality.”
