Deborah Paredez

Paredez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas.[2] She has lived and worked in Seattle, Chicago, Crested Butte, Oaxaca City, Austin, Paris, and New York City. She is married to the historian Frank Andre Guridy.[3]

Paredez earned a BA in English Literature from Trinity University in 1993 and a doctorate from the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama (IPTD) program at Northwestern University in 2002. She has taught at Vassar College (2000-2003), University of Texas at Austin (2003-2016), Université Sorbonne nouvelle (2014), and Columbia University (2015–present). Along with Norma Elia Cantú, Pablo Martinez, Celeste Mendoza, and Carmen Tafolla, Paredez co-founded CantoMundo in 2009.[4] She writes essays about American performance, Latina/o culture, and divas. Her poetry is influenced by contemporary American poets including Natasha Trethewey, Sharon Olds, and A.E. Stallings.[5]

Her poetry collection, Year of the Dog (BOA Editions 2020), was listed as a "New and Notable Poetry Book" by The New York Times and described as "candid and chilling" by Ms. Magazine.[6] Her poetry collection, This Side of Skin, was published by Wings Press in 2002. Her scholarly book, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory, was published by Duke University Press in 2009 and was the recipient of the National Association of Chicana/o Studies Book Award-Honorable Mention and the Latino Studies Book Award-Honorable Mention.[7]

Her essays and poems have appeared in a range of places including Poetry, The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poet Lore, Crab Orchard Review, Callaloo, and Theatre Journal. [8] Her work has also been anthologized in The Gulf Stream: Poems of the Gulf Coast (Snake Nation Press 2014), Beyond El Barrio: Everyday Life in Latina/o America (NYU Press 2010), Women and Migration in the US-Mexico Borderlands (Duke University Press 2007), The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona University Press 2007), Floricanto Sí! A Collection of Latina Poetry (Penguin 1998), and Daughters of the Fifth Sun: A Collection of Latina Fiction and Poetry (Riverhead 1995).[9]

• Paredez, D. (2020). Year of the Dog. BOA Editions. ISBN 978-1-950774-01-2. Retrieved 2020-04-13.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Paredez, D. (2002). This Side of Skin. Wings Press. ISBN 978-0-930324-68-1. Retrieved 2018-04-10.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Paredez, D. (2009). Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory. e-Duke books scholarly collection. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-9089-3. Retrieved 2018-04-10.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Author Website
• Columbia University School of the Arts Writing Program
• Poetry Foundation Podcast Featuring Deborah Paredez
• We Can Be Heroes: Poetry at the Olympics
• The New York Times Poetry Pairing