José R. Ballesteros

Chair, Professor of International Languages and Cultures

Department Chair

José R. Ballesteros

Biography

José has been teaching at St. Mary’s College of Maryland since 2002. He is a co-author of the Spanish literary anthology Voces de España (Cenage, 2004, 2013) and has published several articles about the influence the contact with the “New World” had on Spanish letters of the XVIIth century. José’s poetry has been published in several journals in the US and Europe, and has been anthologized in Al Pie de La Casa Blanca: Poetas Hispanos de Washington, DC (Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española, 2010). His first book of poems Lovedust/Polvo enamorado was published by Izote Press in 2014. José is also a translator of poetry. His co-translation (with Prof. Leslie Bayers) of Marcial Molina Richter’s The Word of the Dead, was published by Lluvia Editores in Perú (2012). Currently professors Bayers and Ballesteros are translating the first English language anthology of the renown Ecuadorian poet Jorge Enrique Adoum. In 2012 José launched and became the editor for Zozobra Publishing, an independent literary press that publishes bilingual editions of previously unpublished Latino and Latina US poetry.

Areas of Research Specialization

  • Creative Writing
  • Translation
  • Early Modern Literature

Areas of Teaching Specialization

  • Spanish
  • Film

Education

  • B.A. in Political Science at University of Kansas,
  • M.S. in Spanish at University of Kansas,
  • Ph.D. in Spanish at University of Kansas,

Spotlight

  • Lovedust/Polvo Enamorado (Izote Press 2014)
  • Voces de España (Cengage, 2013)
  • The Word of the Dead (Lluvia Editores, 2012)