Students studying Spanish at the University of Alabama at Birmingham will benefit from a new scholarship which will be awarded for the first time this fall.
The Passion for Poetry Endowed Scholarship Honoring Liliana Valenzuela will award $1,000 annually to a student pursuing a Spanish major or minor and currently enrolled in or admitted to a degree-granting program in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. The endowment has been fully funded and went officially before the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System at its June meeting.
Applicants for the scholarship should demonstrate solid academic promise and achievement and have earned at least an overall 3.0 grade point average in coursework completed prior to application. The fund will provide support to students for whom affordability may be an obstacle, and who might otherwise be unable to attend the university. The merit of the student will also be considered.
UAB Spanish students, whether on the traditional or applied professional Spanish track of the foreign languages major, will benefit greatly from the Passion for Poetry Endowed Scholarship Honoring Liliana Valenzuela, says John K. Moore Jr., Ph.D., associate professor of Spanish.
“The donor’s generosity will fuel our Spanish students’ own passion for poetry,” Moore said, “whether that be in the form of Spanish-language songs played and studied at the introductory and intermediate levels, in the works of Spanish-speaking Nobel laureates and other great authors in our upper-division courses, or in a live event featuring living Hispanic poets such as the night of Afro-Colombian poetry the department recently hosted.”
Valenzuela is an award-winning poet and acclaimed Spanish translator of works by authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez and Denise Chavez. She is the author of “Codex of Journeys: Bendito Camino” (Mouthfeel Press, 2013) and several chapbooks — small books of ballads, poems or stories. She is a Macondo and Canto Mundo fellow and has held residencies at Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow and Vermont Studio Center. A native of Mexico City, Valenzuela lives and works in Austin, Texas. Her latest book release is an original book of poems, “Codex of Love: Bendita Ternura,” published by FlowerSong Books.
Moore says he is particularly impressed with Valenzuela's "masterful" translation of Sandra Cisneros’ “Caramelo.” Valenzuela discussed her most recent book of poetry, “Codex of Love: Bendita Ternura” (2020), in a virtual discussion this past summer — which the anonymous donor of this scholarship called to his attention.
“Poetry is life, and our best Spanish students’ lives will be improved through this generous endowed scholarship,” he said.