Craig Santos Perez

Craig Santos Perez (born February 6, 1980) is a poet, essayist, university professor, American publisher (USA) from the Chamorro people, born in Mongmong-Toto-Maite, Guam Island. His poetry has received multiple awards, including a 2015 American Book Award and the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Poetry.

Dr.

Craig Santos Perez
Reading at Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University (October 4, 2016)
Born (1980-02-06) February 6, 1980
Mongmong-Toto-Maite, Guåhan (Guam)
EducationUniversity of Redlands (BA)
University of San Francisco (MFA) in Creative Writing
University of California, Berkeley (MA) and (PhD) in Comparative Ethnic Studies
Website
craigsantosperez.com

Biography

Having grown up in a bilingual environment in Guam, Santos Perez moved with his family from Guam to California in 1995. He has stated in interview that "When my family migrated to California, and when I left my family to attend college, Chamorro became nearly non-existent in my life. Because poetry became a way for me to stay connected to memories of home, and a space where I could learn and write about my cultural history, the Chamorro language started to reappear in small ways. I do not have a formula for how this happens; it just happens intuitively. Though I have noticed that most of the Chamorro words that enter into my poetry are words from the natural word, or prayers. Still today, my poetry is written predominantly in English, but I hope that someday Chamorro will become a fuller part of my life and my poetry."[1]

In 2011, together with Brandy Nālani McDougall, he co-founded the publishing house of Ala Press, specializing in the dissemination of literature and culture of the Pacific Islands. Craig Santos Perez is an associate professor of Pacific literature and creative writing at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.[2]

Poetry

In 2008, he began the publication of his series of interconnected books, from unincorporated territory with the first book hacha. He has stated that part of the purpose of this series is to "create counter-mapping to subvert [colonial] maps."[3] Perez's poetry focuses on the themes of Pacific life, immigration to the US, the colonial history of the Pacific Islands and the various diasporas of Pacific Islanders.

As Michael Lujan Bevacqua says in a review essay for the academic journal Transmotion: "Perez seeks to turn the reader away from those mythical maps of modernity, whereby inclusion and assimilation lead to viability and universality. He seeks to push them in new directions not beset by those limiting politics of recognition. While his colonial citations challenge, he includes a number of native Chamorro citations as well, which change from conversations with his grandparents to discussions of Chamorro culture during different epochs. The Chamorro language often provides the basis for these alternative paths, like echoing sonar, leading us through layers of language and time."[4] By contrast, Brandy Nālani McDougall in the Routledge Companion to Native American Literature emphasizes Perez's "diasporic experience as a Chamoru."[5]

Publications

Poetry
  • 2017: from unincorporated territory [lukao], Omnidawn Publishing
  • 2014: from unincorporated territory [guma'], Omnidawn Publishing
  • 2010: from unincorporated territory [saina], Omnidawn Publishing
  • 2008: from unincorporated territory [hacha], Tinfish Press (reprinted by Omnidawn Publishing, 2017)
  • 2007: Constellations gathered along the ecliptic, Shadowbox Press

In Anthology
  • 2019: Native Voices: Indigenous American Poetry, Craft and Conversations. Eds. Cmarie Fuhrman and Dean Rader. Tupelo Press.
  • 2018: Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology. Ed. Melissa Tuckey. University of Georgia Press.

Essays

Awards and distinctions
  • 2017, The Elliot Cades Award for Literature
  • 2016 Chancellor's Citation for Meritorious Teaching at the University of Hawaii
  • 2016, Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship for Poetry
  • 2015, American Book Award
  • 2011, PEN Center USA Award
  • 2011, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize
  • 2010, The Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange Award
  • 2009 Emily Chamberlain Cook Poetry Award from the University of Berkeley
  • 2008, Literary Prize for Poetry
  • 2007, Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship Scholarship, awarded by University of California, Berkeley
  • 2001, The Jean Burden Poetry Award issued by the University of Redland

Articles and interviews

References
  1. "Interview with Craig Santos Perez - Center for Literary Publishing". Coloradoreview.colostate.edu. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  2. "Craig Santos Perez – Department of English, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa". English.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  3. "Interview with Craig Santos Perez - Inscape Journal". Inscape.byu.edu. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  4. Lujan Bevacqua, Michael (2015). "The Song Maps of Craig Santos Perez". Transmotion. 1.
  5. McDougall, Brandy Nālani (2015). "American Imperialism and Pacific Literatures". In Madsen, Deborah (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature. Routledge. pp. 39–52. ISBN 9781138020603.
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