Spring Break
Professor wins PEN prize for poetry
Issue date: 1/16/07 Section: Campus Life
Javier Avila, associate professor of English at Northampton Community College and a resident of Bethlehem, recently received the Puerto Rico PEN Club Book of the Year Award for this volume of poetry, La Simetria del Tiempo (The Symmetry of Time), published by Terranova in 2005. This is the second published book of poetry for the 32-year-old writer, who has earned critical acclaim for his verse and popular success for two novels. The PEN Club is a worldwide association of writers.
"La Simetria del Tiempo is about loss, absence and the tyranny of time," Avila says.
It is also, he says, about the way we look for things outside ourselves that have always been within us, such as curiosity, freshness and innocence.
Two poems illustrate the intimacy and intensity of Avila's work and his prominent theme of time. "Notes on the Death of My Father" chronicles the effects of time and absence in relation to the death of Avila's father, rendered in four scenes: the poet receiving the news; the funeral home; noticing a scar on his father's face, caused by a cat scratc; and the same cat, who is still waiting for Avila's father four years later. Another poem, "14 Borrowed Lines" shows the timelessness of poetry by having fourteen lines, each taken from poems by different authors, writing in different centuries.
Avila is a versatile writer whose work includes the disparate media of poetry and thriller novels-the poetry in Spanish and the novels in English.
A graduate of a high school in Puerto Rico, where instruction was in English, Avila spoke Spanish at home and with his friends. Trained to write in English, the language comes more naturally to him when writing his novels, while poetry calls for Spanish. Each language has influenced the way he writes in the other.
"Writing in English is approached in a more direct, less wordy way," he says. "English influences my writing in Spanish by its conciseness."
Avila's other published book of poetry, Vidrios Ocultos en la Alfombra, (Broken Glass Under the Carpet) was published by Terranova in 2004, and a third, Creature of Oblivion, is due out this spring. His thrillers, Different (in its sixth reprint) and Professor in Ruins are published by Wiley. Different is the story of a shy young man whose acquaintances lead him into a life of crime: Professor in Ruins about a professor who murders ten students. The books of poetry are available through the publisher (terranovaeditores.com), and the novels through Amazon and Barnes and Noble's websites.
Avila also writes a monthly column for the Sunday literary supplement of El Nueva Dia, the major newspaper in Pureto Rico, and has translated two poems by Stanley Kunitz, "The Portrait" and Mediations on Death," into Spanish.
Avila's accomplishments originate from a conviction that writing comes from discipline, not inspiration. He writes every day, without exception, from midnight to 3:00 a.m., a routine he has followed for sixteen years.
He feels highly honored by his recent Puerto Rico PEN Club award.
"It is quite a distinction because my book competed against dozens of other published books written by established Puerto Rican authors. It is an absolute thrill to have won."
Avila believes that poetry should touch people, first and most essentially, through their emotions, and later through their intellect.
"It is the most beautiful expression of language and the most challenging," Avila says.
"La Simetria del Tiempo is about loss, absence and the tyranny of time," Avila says.
It is also, he says, about the way we look for things outside ourselves that have always been within us, such as curiosity, freshness and innocence.
Two poems illustrate the intimacy and intensity of Avila's work and his prominent theme of time. "Notes on the Death of My Father" chronicles the effects of time and absence in relation to the death of Avila's father, rendered in four scenes: the poet receiving the news; the funeral home; noticing a scar on his father's face, caused by a cat scratc; and the same cat, who is still waiting for Avila's father four years later. Another poem, "14 Borrowed Lines" shows the timelessness of poetry by having fourteen lines, each taken from poems by different authors, writing in different centuries.
Avila is a versatile writer whose work includes the disparate media of poetry and thriller novels-the poetry in Spanish and the novels in English.
A graduate of a high school in Puerto Rico, where instruction was in English, Avila spoke Spanish at home and with his friends. Trained to write in English, the language comes more naturally to him when writing his novels, while poetry calls for Spanish. Each language has influenced the way he writes in the other.
"Writing in English is approached in a more direct, less wordy way," he says. "English influences my writing in Spanish by its conciseness."
Avila's other published book of poetry, Vidrios Ocultos en la Alfombra, (Broken Glass Under the Carpet) was published by Terranova in 2004, and a third, Creature of Oblivion, is due out this spring. His thrillers, Different (in its sixth reprint) and Professor in Ruins are published by Wiley. Different is the story of a shy young man whose acquaintances lead him into a life of crime: Professor in Ruins about a professor who murders ten students. The books of poetry are available through the publisher (terranovaeditores.com), and the novels through Amazon and Barnes and Noble's websites.
Avila also writes a monthly column for the Sunday literary supplement of El Nueva Dia, the major newspaper in Pureto Rico, and has translated two poems by Stanley Kunitz, "The Portrait" and Mediations on Death," into Spanish.
Avila's accomplishments originate from a conviction that writing comes from discipline, not inspiration. He writes every day, without exception, from midnight to 3:00 a.m., a routine he has followed for sixteen years.
He feels highly honored by his recent Puerto Rico PEN Club award.
"It is quite a distinction because my book competed against dozens of other published books written by established Puerto Rican authors. It is an absolute thrill to have won."
Avila believes that poetry should touch people, first and most essentially, through their emotions, and later through their intellect.
"It is the most beautiful expression of language and the most challenging," Avila says.
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