Alberto Rios

Alberto Ríos, Arizona’s inaugural poet laureate and a recent chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, is the author of twelve collections of poetry, most recently, Not Go Away Is My Name, preceded by A Small Story about the Sky, winner of the Southwest Book Award, The Dangerous Shirt, and The Theater of Night, which received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award.  Published in the New Yorker, Paris Review, Ploughshares, and other journals, he has also written three short story collections and a memoir, Capirotada, about growing up on the Mexican border.  His most recent book is a novel, A Good Map of All Things.  Ríos is also the host of the PBS programs Art in the 48 and Books & Co.  University Professor of Letters, Regents’ Professor, Virginia G. Piper Chair in Creative Writing, and the Katharine C. Turner Chair in English, Ríos has taught at Arizona State University since 1982.  In 2017, he was named director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing.