Rhina Espaillat

Rhina Espaillat
Born	(1932-01-20) January 20, 1932 (age 93) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Occupation	Poet
Alma mater	Hunter College Queens College
Website
www.rhinapespaillat.com

Rhina Polonia Espaillat (born January 20, 1932, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)^[1] is a bilingual Dominican-American poet and translator who is affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry. She has published eleven collections of poetry. Her work has been included in many popular anthologies, including The Heath Introduction to Poetry (Heath 2000); The Muse Strikes Back (Story Line Press 1997); and In Other Words: Literature by Latinas of the U.S. (Arte Publico Press 1994).

Born in Santo Domingo into an upper class family of mixed Afro-Dominican, Spanish, French, and Arawak descent, Espaillat grew up during World War II in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City after her family became refugees from the Dominican Government of caudillo Rafael Trujillo. She had her first poetry published by the Ladies' Home Journal in November 1947. At the age of 16, she became the youngest ever member of the Poetry Society of America, which altered its rules to admit her. Following her 1952 interracial marriage to sculptor and labor union organizer Alfred Moskowitz, however, Espaillat drifted away from contributing to American poetry until their children had grown up and left home.

Her original poetry contains many sonnets describing her family in domestic settings, which she calls "snapshots". She is also well-known for writing poetry that captures the beauty of daily routine,^[2] as well as poems which ironically and humorously retell stories from both the Christian Bible and Classical mythology.^[3]

Furthermore, even though Espaillat grew up in a time when, "the expectation that one should overcome any non-British ancestral origins, still held sway as a prerequisite to entering the sphere of genuine Americanness",^[4] Espaillat's poetry also expresses pride in being a Latina,^[5] in her identity as a feminist who is also a loving and happy wife and mother, and in American patriotism rooted in gratitude for her status as a political refugee who has built a family and a successful and rewarding life for herself in the United States.^[2]

Espaillat is especially well-known for her literary translations of the Christian poetry of St. John of the Cross (1542–1591) from Castilian Spanish into American English and which appeared in the literary journal First Things,^[6] and for similarly translating the greatest works from the literary canon of both Spanish and Latin American poetry. Espaillat has also published acclaimed translations from American English into Spanish of the poems of both Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur. Espaillat's renderings of the poetry of Robert Frost have particularly been praised for her ability to find completely accurate Spanish equivalents for the Yankee poet's many uses of rural New England slang terms.

In 2023, Espaillat's translations of the Christian poetry by the Archpriest of Hita, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Marko Marulić,^[7] Bedřich Bridel,^[8] and Gaspar Aquino de Belén were edited and published for the first time by Burl Horniachek in the poetry anthology To Heaven's Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry. Espaillat's translation of a Middle Welsh poem by Dafydd ap Gwilym for the book was made in collaboration with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.^[9]

Following the 2020 Presidential Election, President-elect of the United States Joe Biden received a joint open letter and petition signed by more than 70 eminent American poets, who urged him to select Espaillat to read her poetry at Biden's Presidential Inauguration.^{[10][11][12][13]} Biden ultimately chose Amanda Gorman instead.