Rodney Gomez is a poet and urbanist whose work explores the intersection of place, culture, and history in the South Texas borderlands. He has a particular interest in Latinx poetry, ekphrasis, and visual poetry. His collections include Arsenal with Praise Song, recipient of the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for best poetry book from the Texas Institute of Letters; Geographic Tongue, winner of the Pleiades Press Visual Poetry Series; Ceremony of Sand, winner of the Discovery Prize from the Writers’ League of Texas; and Citizens of the Mausoleum, finalist for the John A. Robertson Award. His work appears in Poetry, New England Review, The Gettysburg Review, Denver Quarterly, Rattle, North American Review, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and other journals. His chapbook Mouth Filled Night was awarded the Drinking Gourd Prize from Northwestern University’s Poetry and Poetics Colloquium. He is the recipient of the Editors’ Prize from RHINO magazine, the Gloria Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, the Rane Arroyo Prize, and the Orison Anthology Award. A member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, Gomez was the 2020-2021 Poet Laureate of McAllen, Texas and received an Academy of American Poets Fellowship. He serves as advisory editor for FlowerSong Press and a board member of Newfound, a nonprofit publisher that explores how place shapes identity, imagination, and understanding. He works as Executive Director of Parking and Transportation at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and is a certified planner (AICP), transportation planner (PTP), and project manager (PMP).
Website: rodneygomezpoetry.com
Twitter: @rodneyxgomez