Victor Hernandez Cruz



Victor Hernández Cruz (born: February 6, 1949 in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican poet.

Life
He moved to New York in 1954. He began writing at fifteen, and published his first collections of poetry in the late 1960s.

Hernández Cruz is distinguished member of the famed Nuyorican school of poets (also referred to as the Nuyorican Movement). Hernández Cruz tweaks syntactic conventions of English and Spanish to communicate his own voice.

He was Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Awards

 * International Griffin Poetry Prize
 * Guggenheim Foundation
 * National Endowment for the Arts fellowships

Works

 * Papo Got His Gun. 1966 (chapbook).
 * Snaps, Random House. 1969.
 * (shortlisted for the 2002 International Griffin Poetry Prize)
 * (shortlisted for the 2002 International Griffin Poetry Prize)
 * (shortlisted for the 2002 International Griffin Poetry Prize)

Reviews
Allen Ginsberg: "Poesy news from space anxiety police age inner city, spontaneous urban American language as Williams wished, high school street consciousness transparent, original soul looking out intelligent Bronx windows."