Philly-based Puerto Rican novelist wins national scholarship


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Philadelphia-based novelist Francisco Font Acevedo now has funding to focus on consolidating his place as one of the most important Puerto Rican authors of our time.

Font Acevedo is among the first 20 recipients of the new Letras Boricuas national scholarship. The result of a collaboration between the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Foundation Arts Fund, the grants program is designed to “enrich and maintain the literary tradition in Puerto Rico and throughout the American Diaspora.”

When the competition was announced last spring, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of the most famous artists in the Puerto Rican diaspora, touted the scholarship as “an important way to support Puerto Rican artists on their journey to tell more. of stories “.

Font Acevedo told Billy Penn he was generally skeptical about writing contests. But after several colleagues and friends urged him to apply, he took the plunge and was amazed to learn that he had won.

“It was a surprise and at the same time a relief,” said the 51-year-old author. Although he has written three well-commented novels, he has always had other jobs, most recently as an English-Spanish interpreter.

Born in Chicago and raised at the age of 5 in Rincón, he moved to Philadelphia in 2018 to reconnect with his sister, who has lived in the city for two decades. Adapting to Puerto Rico’s lush tropical climate wasn’t easy, he said, but it expanded his possibilities as a writer.

Living in Philadelphia has meant “other experiences, other perceptions, another change of perspective,” he said. “All of this will pay off in writing. “

How did he find out about the city when he moved here? “Sports news,” Font Acevedo said with a laugh. “It taught me a lot about the spirit of the city. “

Having spent most of his life on the island, he thinks his perspective is different from what he calls a “Phillyrican” – someone born into a Puerto Rican family in Philadelphia – but they each share a broader definition of Culture. “There are many ways to be Puerto Rican,” Font Acevedo said.

Although he’s related to other Puerto Rican writers, he’s more of a lonely guy.

“Yo perreo bastante solo,” he joked, referring to Puerto Rican superstar’s famous song Bad Bunny which roughly translates to “I’m twerking alone.”

For his job, it works. One reviewer in 2016 even described Font Acevedo as “one of the most interesting prose writers of recent years … in all of Latin America.”

The Letras Boricuas Fellowship is unusual in the amount of financial support it provides to Puerto Rican writers of all genres, Font Acevedo said. He hopes the ad will motivate more people to read their work.

“It’s a great stimulus,” he said. “This is the opportunity to recognize [to Puerto Rican literature] this does not happen very often institutionally.

For now, he’s going to take advantage of the economic relief the award will provide him in order to complete his next novel, which, although it takes place outside of any defined space or city, carries with it a “feel” of Philadelphia, the writer explained.

“In a world less demarcated by flags, nationalism and imperial violence etc., in a less politicized world, culturally cultures should converse,” Font Acevedo said, explaining his purpose as a writer. “As an artist, that’s what I do.”

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