Albert Abonado, recently announced as SUNY Oswego’s fall 2024 Artist in Residence, will have his book "Field Guide for Accidents" by the National Poetry Series, a prestigious book series that has featured many of America’s best-known poets.

This means SUNY Oswego’s students will have greater access than the book’s global readership, as Abonado will teach poetry in the English and Creative Writing Department, where faculty have already featured his “Advice for Using Blood in a Poem” in their own classes.

Abonado’s writing and teaching span themes of migration, diaspora and identity. A Philipinx writer, he said: “In the Philippines, I am foreign. I don’t speak Tagalog or Ilongo. In the United States, I am also seen as foreign. The color of my skin and shape of my eyes will also denote my otherness. How does one account for this?”

Abonado only felt permission to write about Asian American themes and issues after reading authors like Li Young Li, and sees his writing and teaching as a continuation of that thread.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts have awarded Abonado distinguished fellowships. His first collection, "Jaw," was applauded by critics and his poems have appeared in numerous venues including Triquarterly, Boston Review, Colorado Review, The Laurel Review, The Margins, Waxwing and Zone 3 and many others. Abonado also cohosts the poetry open mic "New Ground Poetry Night" along with poet Jonathan Everitt.

Abonado is no stranger to Central New York. His parents live in the Finger Lakes, on a blueberry farm — but he grew up on Long Island in an area contaminated by a weapons manufacturer. The manuscript that he will work on during his residency probes humans' connection to land, and he will share a reading from his work in progress at a public event.

As an educator, Abonado’s experience includes teaching at SUNY Geneseo and Finger Lakes Community College. He enjoys teaching students to observe the craft of a poem and apply those strategies and devices in their own writing. While on campus, he will also offer community workshops that are free and open to the public.

Students interested in studying with Albert Abonado in the fall 2024 semester can register for CRW 250: Introductory Poetry Writing. To learn more about the incoming Artist in Residence, visit his website.

-- Submitted by the Department of English and Creative Writing