The MoE Green Poetry Dissicusion with Rafael F.J Alvarado

oin Rafael as he talks toRay Gonzalez & Sy Hoahwah Ray Gonzalez is the author of Memory Fever (University of Arizona Press, 1999), a memoir about growing up in the Southwest, Turtle Pictures (Arizona, 2000), which received the 2001 Minnesota Book Award for Poetry, and a collection of essays, The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape (Arizona, 2002), which received the 2003 Carr P. Collins/ Texas Institute of Letters Award for Best Book of Non-fiction, was named one of ten Best Southwest Books of the Year by the Arizona Humanities Commission, named one of the Best Non-fiction Books of the Year by the Rocky Mountain News, named a Minnesota Book Award Finalist in Memoir, and selected as a Book of the Month by the El Paso Public Library. He is the author of six other books of poetry, including three from BOA Editions--The Heat of Arrivals (1997 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Book Award), Cabato Sentora (2000 Minnesota Book Award Finalist), and The Hawk Temple at Tierra Grande (winner of a 2003 Minnesota Book Award for Poetry, Sy Hoahwah, a member of the Comanche Nation of Oklahoma. His family derives from the Yapaituka (Root Eater) band as well as the Bad Faces Band of the Southern Arapaho. In 2007, Hoahwah received an MFA from the Creative Writing Program at University of Arkansas. He has two published chapbooks, Black Knife (2005, Sequoyah Research Center) and Split (2001, Inverted Press). His poetry has appeared in publications such as the Indiana Review, Shenandoah, Yellow Medicine Review, and SAIL: Studies in American Indian Literature as well as winning an award from the Academy of American Poets. His forthcoming book of poetry, Velroy and The Madischie Mafia is due out late August 2009 by West End Press. He currently resides with his family near St. Louis, MO.