Daniel Borzutzky holds a joint appointment in the Latin American and Latino Studies Program. He has recently taught Creative Writing workshops as well as courses in U.S. Latinx Literature and Latin American Literature, with a specific interest in the ways in which they intersect.

He is a poet and translator from Spanish. His 2016 collection, The Performance of Becoming Human (Brooklyn Arts Press), won the National Book Award. His most recent publications are Written After a Massacre in the Year 2018 (Coffee House Press, 2021); and Lake Michigan (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), a finalist for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. His work has been recognized with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN/Heim Translation Fund; and the Illinois Arts Council.

He's worked as an editor at Kenning Editions, overseeing the publications of new translations from Cuba and Argentina. He also serves as the Intercambio (Spanish-translation) poetry editor at Chicago’s MAKE Magazine; and he is an artistic director for MAKE’s Lit and Luz Festival, an ongoing collaboration between writers and artists from Chicago and Mexico.

Can you tell us more about your background and experience?

I grew up in Pittsburgh. I’m a first generation UnitedStatesian, and my parents migrated from Chile. I have lived in Chicago now for twenty-five years. I have taught at UIC since 2018, and before that I taught in the English Department at Wright College of the City Colleges of Chicago for fourteen years.

I work primarily as a poet and translator, and I also write short prose. I have published several books of poetry, several translations of poets from Spanish; I have worked as an editor for literary journals and independent presses, and in that capacity, I have always focused on promoting Latin American and Latinx literature, and I have been very interested in the intersections between them. At UIC, I teach courses in the English Department and in the Program for Writers; and in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department. I’m happy to have introduced a sequence of three courses in Latinx Literature to the English Department.  Since 2022, I direct our newly-formed Center for Latinx Literature of the Americas, which holds literary and cultural programming at UIC and throughout Chicago.

What challenges did you encounter while teaching and how did you address them? 

For fourteen years I taught at a community college, which was an invaluable experience. One common feature of community college classes is that there are always students who come from a wide range of academic backgrounds. I quickly learned ways of being flexible and providing different kinds of support to different kinds of students, who may have different levels of writing, reading, and conversational skills. This flexible approach that treats students as individuals with different needs and experiences has guided me throughout my career.

What advice do you have for students to succeed in their future career paths?

To remember that in all aspects of your work, your teaching, writing, and service to your institutions and communities, that you have the privilege of being able to reach people, affect them, and change their lives. This is true if you pursue jobs outside of universities as well, which grad students right now should be considering and open to pursuing.

What is one fun fact about yourself? 

I am very happy that the cover of my next book will have a drawing that I made. I started drawing really just a few years ago, and it’s brought me a lot of happiness. I really like baking cookies and people often tell me I look just like the actor Jeff Goldblum.

What do you consider to be your most outstanding achievement?

I’ve been lucky to win some important awards for my writing and translating. My writing has always been strange, unconventional, and influenced primarily by writers from outside the U.S. I am happy to have maintained a writing practice even though I have not always felt that I have had clear models to look towards. I am proud to have made it this far by being myself in my writing, and not caring too much about where I do and do not fit in.