ABOUT ESPERANZA hope Snyder

Esperanza’ Life:

A native of Colombia, South America, Esperanza received a BA in English from the College of William and Mary, an MA in Spanish and Latin American Literature from Johns Hopkins, another MA in Spanish Literature from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Spanish Medieval Literature from the University of Manchester. She is a writer and academic located in Shepherdstown West Virginia, where she held the title of Poet Laureate for several years. Assistant Director of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in Sicily, Esperanza also founded Somondoco Press, a small independent publishing company that publishes poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction. In Shepherdstown she created and directed the Sotto Voce Poetry Festival, and, more recently, the Society for Creative Writing at Shepherd University where she held the position of Poet in Residence. She has also been Writer-in-Residence at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. Her most recent poetry collection, Esperanza and Hope, was published by Sheep Meadow Press.

Esperanza has a children’s book, Lullaby for George, four books of poetry, The Houdini Chronicles, Chains, Strings of Broken Hearts, Esperanza and Hope, and two plays, The Backroom and Lullaby for George (inspired by the children’s book). Her poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Alehouse Press, The Comstock Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Poetry Society of America, OCHO, Poetry Northwest, 32 Poems, Blackbird, The Kenyon Review, and other journals.

Esperanza’s honors include the first Donald Everitt Axinn Award in Poetry for Bread Loaf, the first scholarship to attend Bread Loaf in Sicily, three poetry fellowships for the Gettysburg Review’s Conference for Writers, and the Peter Taylor Fellowship in Poetry at The Kenyon Review’s Conference. She has coordinated The Gettysburg Review’s Conference for Writers and was featured in the Latinx Poetry Round Table Discussion hosted by the Poetry Society of America.