The Puerto Rican Literature Project

Rane Ramón Arroyo was born in 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. A playwright, poet, critic, and storyteller, Arroyo frequently explored identity, diaspora, queerness, and displacement through his writing. As the scholars Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, Lourdes Torres, and Ramón H. Rivera-Servera have noted, “Arroyo’s self-reflexive poetry and fiction often focus on the inner conscience of a poetic persona, a gay Puerto Rican writer who feels out of place in the world and who is constantly struggling to grapple with what it means to be marked by racial, sexual, and linguistic difference.” Arroyo was also strongly influenced by his experience with performance art as a young man living in Chicago in the eighties. In one interview with Ĉervená Barva Press, Arroyo explains, “As a young artist, I became involved in the 1980’s art scene: readings in parking lots and discos; exploring art gallery performance art based on biography; publishing in the small press. Chicago is my home, more than any other place, even if I still feel like an exile.” Arroyo obtained his PhD in English and Cultural Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Later on, he taught creative writing at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He also served on the board of directors for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Arroyo is the author of the books Columbus's Orphan (JVC Books, 1993), The Singing Shark (Bilingual Press, 1996), Pale Ramón (Zoland Books, 1998), Home Movies of Narcissus (University of Arizona Press, 2002), The Portable Famine (BKMK Press, 2005), How to Name a Hurricane (University of Arizona, 2005), The Buried Sea: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona, 2008), Same-Sex Séances (New Sins Press, 2008), The Roswell Poems (WordFarm, 2008), The Sky's Weight (Turning Point, 2009), White as Silver (Červená Barva Press, 2010), and Dancing at Funerals (Ahadada Books, 2010). He was honored with various literary awards, including the John Ciardi Poetry Prize, the Carl Sandburg Poetry Prize, a fellowship from the Ohio State Arts Council, a Pushcart Prize, and the Hart Crane Memorial Award. Arroyo died in 2010.

Works Cited

“Arroyo, Rane”. Encyclopedia.com, https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/arroyo-rane.

“Interview with Rane Arroyo”.  Ĉervená Barva Press, http://www.cervenabarvapress.com/arroyointerview.htm. 

La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence, Lourdes Torres, and Ramón H. Rivera-Servera. “Toward an Archive of Latina/o Queer Chicago: Art, Politics, and Social Performance”. Out in Chicago: LGBT History at the Crossroads. Ed. Jill Austin and Jennifer Brier. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 2011. 127-153.

“Rane Arroyo”. AGNI, https://agnionline.bu.edu/about/our-people/authors/rane-arroyo/.

“Rane Arroyo”. Chicago Literary Hall of Fame, https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/rane-arroyo.

“Rane Arroyo”. Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rane-arroyo.

“Works by Rane Arroyo”. Berea College Library Guides, https://libraryguides.berea.edu/c.php?g=816791&p=5990118.