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  Jay Sims

About

"There is an intimacy in these poems that cannot be taught." - Davidson Foundation Fellowship Selection Committee

"Your poems make me feel like I can fight someone" - a friend

   Irene Vázquez is a poet, editor, and journalist from Houston, Texas. She is a senior at Yale, where she is a member of WORD: Performance Poetry. 
   She is interested in Black feminist ecopoetics, placemaking, and futures. She is part of the 2021 cohort of Mellon Mays-Bouchet Fellows at Yale; her project seeks to understand how French Caribbean poetics can provide a model for thinking beyond sovereignty. 
   Irene is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer and a 2017 Davidson Fellow in Literature for her project "Ebb and Flow: Translating Lives in Transition."  
​   
When she's not writing, she likes drinking coffee, watching Queen Sugar and reminding folks that the South has something to say. 

Selected Awards and Commendations

  • We Need Diverse Books Internship Grantee, 2020
  • Edward A. Bouchet Fellow, 2021 cohort 
  • Davidson Fellow (Literature), 2017
    • The Davidson Fellows Scholarship recognizes young people under the age of 18 who have completed an original, significant piece of work with the potential to make a positive contribution to society
  • Finalist, Houston Youth Poet Laureate, 2016
  • Finalist, Where Are You Poet Chapbook Contest, 2016
  • Maddy Summer Artist Award, Creative Writing, 2016
  • ​Runner Up, Glass Mountain Prose and Poetry Contest, 2016
  • Honorable Mention, Princeton High School Poetry Contest, 2016
  • ​Nominated for Pushcart Prize, 2015
    • Nominated by Gravel Magazine 
Photo: Jose Vázquez
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