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In this episode of Get Lit Minute, we spotlight the accomplished writer and poet, Rigoberto Gonz\\xe1lez.

Rigoberto Gonz\\xe1lez was born in Bakersfield, California and raised in Michoac\\xe1n, Mexico. He earned a BA from the University of California, Riverside and graduate degrees from University of California, Davis and Arizona State University. He is the author of several poetry books, including The Book of Ruin (2019); Unpeopled Eden (2013), winner of a Lambda Literary Award; and So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water until It Breaks (1999), a National Poetry Series selection. He has also written two bilingual children\\u2019s books, Antonio\\u2019s Card (2005) and Soledad Sigh-Sighs (2003); the novel Crossing Vines (2003), winner of ForeWord Magazine\\u2019s Fiction Book of the Year Award; a memoir, Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa (2006), which received the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; and the book of stories Men without Bliss (2008). He has also written for The National Book Critics Circle's blog, Critical Mass; and the Poetry Foundation's blog Harriet. The recipient of Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, The Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle, and the PEN/Voelcker Award, Gonz\\xe1lez writes a Latino book column for the El Paso Times of Texas. He is contributing editor for Poets & Writers, on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle, and on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist writers.\\xa0 Gonz\\xe1lez is a professor of English and director of the MFA Program in creative writing at Rutgers University\\u2013Newark. He lives in New York City. Source

This episode includes a reading of his poem, \\u201cBirthright\\u201d\\xa0 featured in our 2022/23 Get Lit Anthology.

"Birthright"

in the village

of your birth

cuts a wall

bleeds a border

\\xa0

in the heat

you cannot swim

in the rain

you cannot climb

\\xa0

in the north

you cannot be

cuts a paper

cuts a law

\\xa0

cuts a finger

finger bleeds

baby hungers

baby feeds

\\xa0

baby needs

you cannot go

you cannot buy

you cannot bring

\\xa0

baby grows

baby knows

bordercrossing

seasons bring

\\xa0

winter border

summer border

falls a border

border spring

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