Millicent Borges Accardi

Millicent Borges Accardi is a Portuguese-American poet  who lives in California. She has received literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Fulbright, CantoMundo, the California Arts Council, Barbara Deming Foundation, and Formby Special Collections at Texas Tech University for research on the writer/activist Key Boyle.

Her full-length poetry collection is Only More So, (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), Injuring Eternity and Practical Love Poems (forthcoming) are with World Nouveau She also has a chapbook, Woman on a Shaky Bridge, with Finishing Line Press.

Her articles can be found at The Writers Chronicle, Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Poets Quarterly, The Portuguese American Journal, Portuguese-American Review,  and The Topanga Messenger. Interview subjects have included Grammy Director Michael Greene; poets W.S. Merwin and Carl Dennis; writers Frank X. Gaspar, Sam Pereira, Jacinto Lucas Pires, Donna Freitas (Sex and the Soul), and Nuno Júdice; Paulette Rapp (daughter of The Bickersons writer), Stephen Rebello (Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho), playwright Bill Bozzone, CantoMundo, and Portuguese-American scholar Deolinda Adão.

Borges Accardi's work has appeared in over 50 publications, including Nimrod, Tampa Review, New Letters and The Wallace Stevens Journal, as well as in Boomer Girls (Iowa Press) and Chopin with Cherries (Moonrise Press) anthologies. Artist residencies include Yaddo, Jentel, Vermont Studio, Fundación Valparaíso in Mojacar, Milkwood in Český Krumlov, CZ and Disquiet in Lisbon, Portugal.

She received degrees in English and literature from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), holds a Masters in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California (USC). She was named after the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, MA.

Borges Accardi also works as a freelance writer (technical writing and instructional design).

Reading series
In 2012, Millicent Accardi started the "Kale Soup for the Soul" reading series featuring Portuguese-American writers. The first edition was in Chicago at the famous Chicago Cultural Center. Since then, "Kale Soup for the Soul" readings have featured over 25 different writers, in regional readings in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Iowa City, Providence, Rhode Island, Boston and San José  —as part of a new wave of Portuguese-American Literature. In 2013, there were "Kale Soup for the Soul" readings at the Mass Poetry Festival in Salem, the Valente Library in Cambridge, and the Portuguese Consulate in Boston. There were also readings at Brown University, UMass Dartmouth, and Rhode Island College as well as workshops with local students from Shea high school in Rhode Island (80 students in attendance). There was a conference in Lisbon which featured a panel about Portuguese-American Literature as well as a round table with many of the writers who have participated in "Kale Soup for the Soul".

Works
Poetry collections:
 * Only More So (Salmon Poetry, 2016)
 * Injuring Eternity (Mischievous Muse Press, December, 2010)
 * Practical Love Poems (forthcoming)

Chapbooks:
 * Woman on a Shaky Bridge (Finishing Line Press, 2010)

Awards
2015: Fulbright Fellowship for Poetry

2013: US@PT travel grant from Fundação Luso-Americanato (FLAD)

2014/2012: Center for Cultural Innovation, Creative Capacity Quick Grant

2011/2012: CantoMundo Fellowship

2010: Formby Fellowship, Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

2003: California Arts Council Grant for Poetry

2002: Barbara Deming Foundation

1998: Alden B. Dow Fellowship (unable to attend)

1997-98: National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship for Poetry

1992: Elizabethe Kempthorne Endowment for Creative Writing at USC

1991: State of California Pre-Doctoral Grant

Memberships
MLA

American Portuguese Studies Association

PEN/America

Associated Writing Programs Associate

Portuguese-American Women's Association

CantoMundo

USC Alumni Association

Society for Technical Communication