Alberto Ríos

{{short description|American poet (born 1952)}} {{about||the baseball player|Alberto Rios (baseball)}} {{BLP sources|date=October 2012}} {{Infobox writer  | name = Alberto Ríos | honorific_prefix = | honorific_suffix = | image = Alberto Ríos at 2026 Tucson Festival of Books.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Ríos at the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|09|18}} | birth_place = Nogales, Arizona | death_date =  | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Professor, poet | language = | education = | alma_mater = | period = | genre = Poetry | subject =  | movement = | notableworks =  | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = | portaldisp =  }} '''Alberto Álvaro Ríos''' (born September 18, 1952) is a US academic and writer who is the author of ten books and chapbooks of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir.

Rios was named Arizona's first state poet laureate in August 2013, a position he continues to hold.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/|title=Alberto Álvaro Ríos |website=public.asu.edu}}</ref><ref name="AZArtsRios">{{cite web |title=Celebrated Poet Alberto Álvaro Ríos Named as Arizona's Inaugural Poet Laureate |url=https://azarts.gov/press/celebrated-poet-alberto-alvaro-rios-named-as-arizonas-inaugural-poet-laureate-2/ |website=AZ Arts |date=19 August 2013 |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref><ref name="LOCAZ">{{cite web |title=Arizona |url=https://guides.loc.gov/united-states-state-poets-laureate/alabama-georgia#s-lib-ctab-28174967-2 |website=Library of Congress |access-date=3 August 2022}}</ref>

==Life== Alberto Ríos graduated from University of Arizona with an MFA. He is a Regents' Professor at Arizona State University, where he has taught since 1982 and where he holds the further distinction of the Katharine C. Turner Endowed Chair in English.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://poets.org/poet/alberto-rios|title=About Alberto Ríos | Academy of American Poets|first=Academy of American|last=Poets|website=poets.org}}</ref>

His book ''A Small Story About the Sky''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/a-small-story-about-the-sky-by-alberto-rios/|title=A Small Story about the Sky by Alberto Ríos}}</ref> was published in 2015 by Copper Canyon Press. Other books of poems include ''The Dangerous Shirt'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/the-dangerous-shirt-by-alberto-rios/|title=The Dangerous Shirt by Alberto Ríos}}</ref> along with ''The Theater of Night'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/the-theater-of-night-by-alberto-rios/|title=The Theater of Night by Alberto Ríos}}</ref> winner of the 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award, ''The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/the-smallest-muscle-in-the-human-body-by-alberto-rios/|title=The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body by Alberto Ríos|newspaper=Copper Canyon Press}}</ref> finalist for the National Book Award, ''Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses'', ''The Lime Orchard Woman'', ''The Warrington Poems'', ''Five Indiscretions'', and ''Whispering to Fool the Wind'', which won the Walt Whitman Award.

His three collections of short stories are ''The Curtain of Trees'', ''Pig Cookies'' and ''The Iguana Killer'', which won the first Western States Book Award for Fiction, judged by Robert Penn Warren.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}

His memoir about growing up on the Mexico-Arizona border, called ''Capirotada'', won the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award and was designated the OneBookArizona choice for 2009.

Ríos is the recipient of the Western Literature Association Distinguished Achievement Award, the Arizona Governor's Arts Award, fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Walt Whitman Award, the Western States Book Award for Fiction, six Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and fiction, and inclusion in ''The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.''{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}} thumb|Ríos at the 2014 National Book Festival In 2014, he was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.<ref name="auto"/>

Ríos is also a host for ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication's KAET. He hosted the litereray interview show ''Books & Co.'' from 2009 to 2018.<ref>{{Cite web| title = Page Title| accessdate = 2021-10-06| url = https://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/news/}}</ref> He currently hosts the arts interview show ''Art in the 48''.

== Bibliography ==

===Poetry=== His books of poems include: * ''A Small Story About the Sky'', Copper Canyon Press, 2015, {{ISBN|9781556594793}} * {{cite book|author=Alberto Ríos|title=The Dangerous Shirt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BWauoUBfmToC|year=2009|publisher=Copper Canyon Press|isbn=978-1-55659-298-0}} * ''The Theater of Night'', Copper Canyon Press, 2006, {{ISBN|9781556592591}} * {{cite book|title=The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_703BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA106|date=5 April 2014|publisher=Copper Canyon Press|isbn=978-1-61932-123-6|pages=106–}} nominated for the National Book Award, * ''Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses'' W. W. Norton, Incorporated, 1992, {{ISBN|9780393308099}} * ''The Lime Orchard Woman'' Sheep Meadow Press, 1988, {{ISBN|9780935296778}} * ''The Warrington Poems'', Pyracantha Press, Arizona State University, School of Art, 1989 * ''Five Indiscretions'' The Sheep Meadow Press, 1985, {{ISBN|9780935296570}} * ''Whispering to Fool the Wind'', Sheep Meadow Press, 1982, {{ISBN|9780935296303}} * ''Sleeping on Fists'' (Dooryard Press, 1981) * ''Elk Heads on the Wall''(Mango Publications, 1979) * ''Spring in the Only Place Spring Was''

===Short story collections=== * ''The Curtain of Trees'' * ''Pig Cookies'' * {{cite book|title=The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgvKgE5Vsj0C|year=1984|publisher=UNM Press|isbn=978-0-8263-1922-7}} * ''The Secret Lion''

===Non-fiction=== * ''Capirotada'', University of New México Press, 1999, {{ISBN|9780826320940}}, a memoir about growing up on the Mexican border

==Honors== {{BLP unreferenced section|date=November 2019}} * Guggenheim Foundation fellowship * National Endowment for the Arts fellowship * Walt Whitman Award * Outstanding Latino/a Cultural Award in Literary Arts or Publications, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), 2004<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aahhe.org/Awards/outstandingPublications.aspx|title=William Aguilar Cultural Arts Award|last=|first=|date=2019|website=aahhe.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124343/https://www.aahhe.org/awards/outstandingPublications.aspx|archive-date=February 9, 2019|access-date=December 24, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> * Western States Book Award for fiction * Pushcart Prize - awarded 6 times for both poetry and fiction * 2005 Historymaker selection by the Arizona History Society's Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, at Papago Park, Tempe, Arizona * 2007 recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award for ''The Theater of Night''

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * Wild, Peter (1998). ''Alberto Ríos''. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University "Western Writers Series" #131. pp. 51. {{ISBN|978-0884301301}} {{OCLC|40252765|246369356}}

==External links== * [http://www.public.asu.edu/~aarios/ Alberto Álvaro Ríos] faculty/personal website – Arizona State University

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rios, Alberto}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Arizona State University faculty Category:American male poets Category:American short story writers Category:American memoirists Category:University of Arizona alumni Category:People from Nogales, Arizona Category:People from Chandler, Arizona Category:Poets laureate of Arizona Category:Poets from Arizona Category:American male short story writers Category:American male non-fiction writers