Rider English professor awarded prestigious Letras Boricuas Fellowship

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Poet, playwright and Rider University Assistant Professor of English Vincent Toro has been selected as a recipient of this year’s Letras Boricuas Fellowship, an honor that celebrates distinguished Puerto Rican writers from the mainland U.S. and Puerto Rico. The prestigious fellowship, created by the Flamboyan Foundation in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon Foundation, aims to elevate Puerto Rican literary voices and foster a vibrant community among writers.

Toro, a New York City native with roots in Juncos and Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, was inspired to apply for the $25,000 fellowship to connect with fellow Puerto Rican writers. He also plans to use the funds to support research trips to Puerto Rico and pursue a self-directed retreat abroad.

“Taking the time and space for this will help me get going on my next book, and perhaps an adjacent play project as well,” he says.

Toro has published three collections of poetry. His most recent work, Hivestruck, was released by Penguin Random House in 2024, following Tertulia (2020) and his debut, Stereo.Island.Mosaic. (2016), which received the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. His poetry and prose have appeared in an array of literary journals and anthologies, including Best American Experimental Writing 2015 and Puerto Rico En Mi Corazon. Toro also serves as poetry editor for Kweli Literary Journal.

Receiving the fellowship has made Toro feel more accepted into a community from which he says he has often felt distant.

“As a New York-born Puerto Rican who is not fluent in Spanish and who was raised primarily in New Jersey, I have spent most of my life feeling like I was on the outside looking in at my own culture and history,” he says. “For me, this fellowship is also a form of community, affirming my identity and the work I have been doing over the last 30-plus years in a way that I have needed for some time. I am profoundly moved to be able to say that I am part of this fellowship/community, and I hope to be able to nurture all the fruits that it bears.”

The Flamboyan Foundation works to ensure every child in the U.S. and Puerto Rico receives an outstanding education. In Washington, D.C., Flamboyan aims to accelerate student learning by helping educators and school systems transform their relationships with families. In Puerto Rico, the foundation helps to ensure students are reading in Spanish on grade level by third grade while building a thriving philanthropic and nonprofit sector, which includes arts and cultural organizations.