Called the "Latino poet of his generation," Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. His new book of poems is called Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), which recently won the American Book Award, presented annually by the Before Columbus Foundation in Berkeley, California. Espada has published five collections of poetry, including City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (Norton), and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands (Curbstone). He is also editor of Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Press. His awards include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Massachusetts Artists Fellowship, the Paterson Poetry Prize and the PEN/Revson Fellowship. The PEN/Revson judges were unanimous: "The greatness of Espada's art, like all great arts, is that it gives dignity to the insulted and the injured of the earth." Many of his poems arise from his work experiences, ranging from bouncer to tenant lawyer. Espada now teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.