Red Leather Gloves finalist for Ben Franklin Award for Poetry


9781601820587-webRed Leather Gloves by B.V. Olguín is a finalist for the 2015 Benjamin Franklin Award for poetry. This is quite an honor since many categories can have 100 title entries. The Benjamin Franklin Awards are sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) with help from over 150 book publishing professionals including librarians, bookstore owners, reviewers, designers, publicity managers, and editors. The winner will be announced during a dinner ceremony held by the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) on Friday evening, April 10, 2015 at the Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol in Austin, TX.

RED LEATHER GLOVES takes us from the mean streets of the Houston’s barrios and dockside boxing stables into a dilapidated boxing arena deceptively named the Olympiad where men and boys reenact an ancient rite of passage in desperate pursuit of Olympic fame, title belts, and riches that will elude them all. An amateur boxer in his youth, Olguín dissects the sport with the skill of a cut-man, and his poems burst with the pain and physical toll the sport exacts.

B.V. Olguín
B.V. Olguín

B.V. Olguín was born and raised in the working class barrio in the lower east side of Houston, Texas known as Magnolia. He was an undefeated amateur boxer (14-0, 2 KO). He received a B.A. from the University of Houston in 1989, where his maternal grandfather worked as a janitor, and an M.A. (1992) and Ph.D. (1996) from Stanford University. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Literature and Creative Writing in the English Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Olguín is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros and has published in journals such as Borderlands, Callaloo, North American Review, and elsewhere.

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