About

Eléna Rivera was born in Mexico City, and spent her formative years in Paris. She has also lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, Montréal and Providence, Rhode Island. She now resides in New York City.

Her most recent book is: Scaffolding (Princeton University Press, 2017). Other books are: Atmosphered (Oystercatcher Press, 2014), On the Nature of Position and Tone (Fields Press, 2012), The Perforated Map (Shearsman Books, 2011), and Remembrance of Things Plastic (LRL e-editions, 2010). She won the 2010 Robert Fagles prize for her translation of Bernard Noël's The Rest of the Voyage (Graywolf Press, 2011) and is a recipient of a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Translation.

Featured Work

Scaffolding

2017

Eléna Rivera’s new collection of poems, Scaffolding, is a sequence of eighty-two sonnets written over the course of a year, dated and arranged in roughly chronological order. The work vividly reflects life in New York City, where Rivera resides. A poet and translator, Rivera’s earlier collections include The Perforated Map; her translation of Bernard Noël’s The Rest of the Voyage won the Robert Fagles Translation Prize. Recently, Rivera answered some questions about her book, the interplay between form and content, and the life that informs her writing.

Other Works

  • Atmosphered

    2014

  • Overture

    2014

  • On the Nature of Position and Tone

    2012

  • The Perforated Map

    2011

  • Remembrance of Things Plastic

    2010

  • In Respect of Distance

    2007

  • Unknowne Land

    2000

  • Wale; or, The Corse

    1994

  • The Wait; for Homer's Penelope

    1994

Awards and Recognition

  • SHOEN Foundation grant, Paris, France, 2016
  • Poet-in-Residence, Djerassi Foundation, CA 2011
  • Writer-in-Residence, Associated College of Twin Cities, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN, 2011
  • National Endowment for the Arts in Translation 2010
  • Poet-in-Residence, Fundación Valparaíso, Mojácar, Spain, 2009
  • The Witter Banner Poetry Translation Residency. Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM 2007
  • Poet-in-residence, MacDowell Colony Fellowship and residence. Peterborough, NH 2005
  • First Prize, Stand Magazine 2nd International Poetry Competition. Stand Magazine, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. 1998
  • Poet-in-Residence, The Pauline and Henry Louis Gates Sr. Fellowship, Djerassi Foundation, CA, 1996

Press and Media Mentions