Red Leather Gloves nominated for Texas Institute of Letters Poetry award

B.V. Olguín’s Red Leather Gloves  is a finalist for the 2015 Texas Institute of Letters “First Book of Poetry” award. The winner of the award is announced on Saturday evening, April 11, 2015 on the campus of the University of Houston at the Hilton Hotel. B.V. Olguín is among three finalists for the “First Book of Poetry” award. The Texas Institute of Letters is a non-profit organization that recognizes Texas writers distinctive literary achievement and annually gives awards for published works.

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 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.