Author Spotlight - Jonathan Harrington
Jonathan Harrington moved to Mérida in 1983 after receiving a MFA from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He lived for 22 years on the Hacienda San Antonio Xpakay near Ticul. Jonathan has published four books of poems: Handcuffed to the Jukebox, Aqui / Here, Yesterday, A Long Time Ago, and Rastro de papeles (Español). Aqui / Here is a collection of twelve poems, published for the first time in a bilingual edition, which point us to that place we all inhabit: HERE. Whether in a furnished room in Mexico, on top of a Mayan ruin, buying grilled corn in a plaza, at a West Indian dance club, or on a once deserted beach now changed beyond recognition, these poems are a map to the treasures in each of us and speak eloquently of the urgency of here and now.
His book, The Traffic of Our Lives, won the Ledge Press Poetry Award and his poetry has since appeared in Poetry East, Texas Review, Main Street Rag, Pebble Lake Review, The Shop (Ireland), Green River Review, Black Bear Review, Kentucky Poetry Review, South Florida Poetry Review, The Spectator and many other publications throughout the world and have also been featured on public radio.
In 1989 he edited New Visions: Fiction by Florida Writers while also writing monthly columns for Metro Magazine which won the coveted Gold “Charlie” Award for best column of the year from the Florida Magazine Association in 1990. In 1992, twenty-six of these essays were collected in Tropical Son: Essays on the Nature of Florida, and published to wide critical acclaim.
After working as an editor at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and teaching Creative Writing for ten years at the University of Central Florida, Jonathan moved to New York City in 1993. In the next ten years he published a series of highly popular mystery novels: The Death of Cousin Rose, The Second Sorrowful Mystery, A Great Day for Dying, St. Valentine’s Diamond and Death on the Southwest Chief. The books appeared in hardback, paperback and book-club editions.
Most recently, Jonathan has been working on translations of poems by various Mayan poets, from Maya and Spanish into English including Seven Dreams and Praise for My Land. These translations have appeared in World Literature Today, International Review of Poetry, Visions International, The Dirty Goat and elsewhere. Jonathan’s latest book of poetry is Lift Up the Stone: The Gospel According to Jonathan published by Ablucionistas Press.
Aqui / Here, Tropical Son: Essays on the Nature of Florida, The Death of Cousin Rose, The Second Sorrowful Mystery, and A Great Day for Dying are all part of the library’s permanent lending collection. He recently did a reading at the library and you can watch the video here.
