Martin Espada, called “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors” by Sandra Cisneros, has published 13 books as a poet, essayist, editor and translator. Of his most recent collection of poems, The Republic of Poetry, Samuel Hazo wrote: “Espada unites in these poems the fierce allegiances of Latin American poetry to freedom and glory with the democratic tradition of Whitman, and the result is poetry of fire and passionate intelligence.” His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, The Nation, and The Best American Poetry. Espada appeared as a featured poet in Readings & Conversations in 2007.