Meet a Roadrunner: Natalia Treviño ’90, MA ’93 is a poet with a distinct voice
(Nov. 25, 2015) -- Meet Natalia Treviño ’90, MA ’93. She’s an acclaimed poet looking to use her creativity to shine a light on people in the shadows.
When Treviño first arrived at UTSA in the late 1980s, she thought it was just a “starter school,” where someone could complete their first two years of college before transferring to another school. But she found that nothing could be further from the truth. She fell in love with art and learning in UTSA’s English department, where she began her studies in fiction writing.
“My professors were absolutely brilliant beyond my imagination,” she said. “They completely expanded my idea of what literature is and how we can all be connected by it.”
Treviño was drawn to poetry because she was fascinated by the challenge of compressing language and the opportunity to reach a broad audience using metaphors.
Her experience at UTSA was so valuable that she decided to stay to pursue an MA in fiction.
“Poetry crosses socioeconomic boundaries,” she said. “Poets are the voices of the world.”
Since Treviño’s first years at UTSA, her mentor has been Wendy Barker, Pearl LeWinn Endowed Professor of Creative Writing. Treviño credits the long mentorship to simply “getting each other.” As she celebrates the release of her first book of poems, Barker has released her sixth poetry collection.
“The reason I did it was Wendy,” Treviño said. “She took me so far into poetry. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to reach where I wanted to be as a poet.”
Originally from Mexico City, Treviño became a naturalized American citizen at 15 after living in San Antonio for 11 years. She’s currently working on her first novel, Drinking the Bee Water, which tells the story of an immigrant mother in the U.S. Much of her work focuses on the immigrant experience, and she counts among her heroes Luis Urrea, who penned The Devil’s Highway, a nonfiction book about a group of men who died attempting to cross the border.
“He documented the lives of the each one of those people,” she said. “For the personal effort he made to recognize these people who otherwise would have just disappeared, he transformed my writing goals.”
Treviño is an associate professor of English at Northwest Vista College, and a mother to a young son. She said that for her, like most writers, it’s difficult to find the headspace to be creative.
“Our lives are so busy and complex on every level,” she said. “I really get my inspiration when I calm down and experience gratitude. Then I can reach insights that give me nourishment to work out something in an artistic space.”
-----------------------------Learn more about Natalia Treviño’s work.
Learn more about creative writing at UTSA.
Do you know someone at UTSA who is achieving great things? Email us at social@utsa.edu so we might consider your submission for an upcoming installment of Meet a Roadrunner.
Connect online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
Events
Join UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers. Current agreements include Elsevier, Cambridge University Press, Springer Open, and more. Please bring your questions and feedback for the library as we continue to pursue partnerships with publishers to reduce costs for our researchers.
Virtual EventYou have probably heard of the term “fair use,” but how comfortable do you feel with navigating U.S. copyright law? For instance, did you know you are not required to register your copyrighted work with the U.S. Copyright Office? Join us for a hands-on workshop about the basics of copyright, both in education and as a researcher. We’ll dispel some common copyright myths and differences between copyright law and other intellectual property law and teach you how to apply a Fair Use checklist to your scholarly work.
Virtual EventDon’t mind the writing but hate formatting citations and bibliographies? Working on your thesis or dissertation, or even a long paper this semester? Citation managers such as Zotero® can help you store and organize the citations you find during your research. Take part in this session about using Zotero®.
Virtual EventIn this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to have EndNote already installed on a personal computer.
Virtual EventFeaturing UTSA alumni John Seesholtz and Melissa Lubecke Serabia. The program will be focused on Latin American Art Song. Free and open to the public.
UTSA Recital HallPressbooks is an open educational resource authoring platform for simple book publishing. Upon completion of the Pressbooks Basic workshop attendees will be able to: create a new book, clone an existing book, remix chapters from a variety of different Creative Commons licensed books, add media and other content to a book, export a book in a wide range of formats.
Virtual EventJoin Community-Engaged Digital Scholarship Hub (CEDISH) and the Digital Humanities Student Association (DHSO) at UTSA for an enlightening workshop on "Responsible Datasets in Context," sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation. Participants will gain insights into creating contextually rich datasets, developing data essays, and crafting effective visualizations.
Assembly Room, 4th Floor (4.04.22), John Peace Library