Rhina P. Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Her family was exiled to the United States and settled in New York City. She began writing poetry in Spanish and then in English, and has published in both languages. Espaillat has published 17 collections, comprising poetry, short stories, essays, and translations. Those include Lapsing to Grace (1992); Where Horizons Go (1998), winner of the 1998 T. S. Eliot Prize in Poetry; The Shadow I Dress In (2004), winner of the Stanzas Prize; Rehearsing Absence (2001), 2001 winner of the Richard Wilbur Award; Playing at Stillness (2005); a bilingual chapbook titled Mundo y Palabra / The World and the Word (2001); Her Place in These Designs (2008); El olor de la memoria / The Scent of Memory (2007); Agua de dos rios / Water from Two Rivers (2017); and most recently And After All (2018) and The Field (2019). Espaillat’s work has garnered many awards, including the Sparrow Sonnet Award, three Poetry Society of America awards, the Der-Hovanessian Translation Award from the New England Poetry Club, and, for her Spanish translations of Robert Frost, the Tree at My Window Award from the Robert Frost Foundation. She is a two-time winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. In 2008 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Salem State College. She is a founding member of both the Fresh Meadows Poets and the Powow River Poets.
Rhina P. Espaillat nació en la República Dominicana bajo la dictadura de Rafael Trujillo. Su familia fue exiliada a los Estados Unidos y se instaló en la ciudad de Nueva York. Comenzó a escribir poesía en español y luego en inglés, y publica en ambos idiomas. Ha publicado diez y siete colecciones que abarcan poesía, cuentos, ensayos y traducciones. Esas incluyen Lapsing to Grace (1992); Where Horizons Go (1998), ganador del Premio T. S. Eliot 1998; The Shadow I Dress In (2004), ganador del Premio Stnzasa; Rehearsing Absence (2001), ganador del Premio Richard Wilbur Award 2001; Playing at Stillness (2005); un chapbook titulado Mundo y Palabra / The World and the Word (2001); Her Place in These Designs (2008); El olor de la memoria / The Scent of Memory (2007); Agua de dos ríos / Water from Two Rivers (2017); And after All 2018) y The Field (2019). La obra de Rhina Espaillat ha obtenido otros premios, entré ellos el Sparrow Sonnet Award, tres premios anuales de la Poetry Society of America, el Premio Der-Hovanessian otorgado por el New England Poetry Club, y el premio Tree at My Window, de la Robert Frost Foundation, por sus traducciones al español de las obras de Robert Frost. En 2008 recibió un Reconocimiento con Motivo de Logros Vitalicios de Salem State College. Es miembro fundadora de dos organizaciones literarias, los Fresh Meadows Poets y los Powow River Poets.
