Albert Abonado
Photo by Catie Abanado
Bio
Albert Abonado is the author of JAW (Sundress Publications 2020). He has received fellowships for poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He hosts the poetry radio show Flour City Yawp on WAYO 104.3 FM-LP. He is also the co-host of the monthly poetry open mic series New Ground Poetry Night. His writing has appeared in Colorado Review, Hobart, Zone 3, the Laurel Review, Memorious, the Margins, Waxwing, Lunch Ticket, and others. He holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. He lives in Rochester, New York, where he teaches creative writing at SUNY Geneseo and the Rochester Institute for Technology.
With poetry I hope to conjure and transform, to reimagine, an act that demands immersion, concentration, and attention. All my writing begins and ends the same way: Who is this person speaking and how did they get here? I am deeply honored and grateful to receive this extraordinary gift from the National Endowment for the Arts that will afford me the time and stability to continue writing, especially during this unique period of uncertainty. The solitary nature of writing makes it easy to forget we are not alone, that our efforts have purpose. We might spend long stretches of time surrounded by silence. This support is life-affirming, a reminder that the arts still fulfill a vital role in our culture, that there is still space for the imagination, for empathy and wonder.