Iliana Rocha

Assistant Professor

217 McClung Tower
irocha@utk.edu
Website • Twitter

Biography

Iliana Rocha is the 2019 winner of the Berkshire Prize for a First or Second Book of Poetry for her newest collection, The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez, forthcoming from Tupelo Press. Karankawa, her debut, won the 2014 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). The recipient of a 2020 CantoMundo fellowship and 2019 MacDowell Colony fellowship, she has had work featured in the Best New Poets 2014 anthology, as well as The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, Latin American Literature Today, RHINO, Blackbird, and West Branch, among others,and sheserves as Poetry Co-Editor for Waxwing Literary Journal. She earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from Western Michigan, and her areas of specialty are Chicanx and Latinx poetics, critical race theory, and queer and feminist rhetoric. Her three chihuahuas Nilla, Beans, and Migo are the loves of her life.

Education

• PhD, Western Michigan University
• MFA, Arizona State University
• BA, University of Houston

Publications

Books

• The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez (Tupelo Press, forthcoming 2021)
• Karankawa (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015)

Poems in Periodicals

• “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez,” forthcoming in American Diversity Report
• “Another Selena Poem,” forthcoming in Oxford American
• “Recovery at the Point Past Annihilation” and “Reyna Angélica Marroquín Lives inside My iPhone” in diode
• “Holy” in [PANK]
• “Mexican American Sonnet” and “Mexican American Sonnet” in Puro Chicanx Writers in the 21st Century Anthology, edited by Terry Acevedo, Beth Alvarado, Octavio Quintanilla, Carmen Tafolla, Luis Alberto Urrea, Edward Vidaurre, and Pamela Uschuck
• Hero’s Journey” and “I Steal from Everyone” in Quarterly West
• “Angleton Elegy” and “¡Mira, Mira!” in Hindsight Magazine
• “Lorena Bobbit As” and “Mexican American Sonnet Standing in the Center of Houston and Looking South” in Matter
• “Cities & Desire” in Art Focus Oklahoma
• “Houston Astros Sign Osuna Despite Local Outrage” in Gulf Coast
• “Tabloid for Inocencio Rodriguez” and “Savanna’s Act” in petrichor
• “Take Me Out” in Bodies Built for Game, edited by Natalie Diaz and Hannah Ensor
• “Milieu,” “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez,” and “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” in Latin American Literature Today
• “Doble-Elegy” and “Antisonnet for Alfonsina Storni” in Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas
• “Ode” in Vinegar and Char: Southern Food in Verse, edited by Sandra Beasley
• “Collective Memory,” featured in Frontier Poetry “Exceptional Poetry From Around the Web: March 2018”
• “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” and “Domestic Violence” in the Scalawag Southern Latinx Poetry Series
• “The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” “Bettie Page Finds Jesus,” “Michael Vick is  Still Apologizing Somewhere for Abusing Dogs,” “The Girls Gone Up in Smoke,” and “Love Letter to Scott Peterson” in Waxwing
• “Elegy to the 1950s Waist” in Nightjar Review
• “Hoax” in RHINO
• “I Watched a Bat Kill Itself in Yuma” in The Arkansas International
• “Looking at Women,” featured on the Best American Poetry blog
• “Collective Memory,” “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez,” “Texas Killing Fields,” “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez,” and “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” in Virginia Quarterly Review
• “Ekphrasis for a Photo Found after the Flood” and “Ekphrasis for a Photo Taken after the Flood” in Gravy
• “Dear America” in Obsidian
• “I Leave,” featured in The Literary Review
• “Elegy for a Quinceañera Dress” in Apogee
• “Marfa Lights” and “Houston” in The Boiler
• “Post-Elect” in The Nation
• “Bird Atlas,” “Jess,” and “Interrogation” in Tinderbox Poetry Journal
• “Injection Well” and “Drag” in West Branch
• “Tabloid for Judy Garland” in Grist 
• “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” in Miracle Monocle
• “Elegy for Kanye West” and “True Crime Addict” in Banango Street
• “Dolled Up,” “‘November Rain’ Triptych,” and “Obituaries” in The Broken Plate
• “Tabloid for Jayne Mansfield,” “Tabloid for Lupe Vélez,” and “Tabloid for Lori Erica Ruff” in Puerto del Sol
• “Texas Seven” in Juked
• “Last Seen” in Midwestern Gothic
• “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” in New Plains Review
• “Rita Hayworth Triptych” and “White Mexican Girl” in The Acentos Review
• “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” and “The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” in New South
• “Landscape with Graceland Crumbling in My Hands,” “A Transitional Time for Planets,” and “Ken Caminiti Dies in a Houston Hotel” in Pittsburgh Poetry Review
• “Miscarriage” and “Watching The Last Days of Left Eye” in Up the Staircase Quarterly: ’90s–Themed Issue
• “White Mexican Girl,” “Still Life with Aunt Carmen at Bravo’s Mexican Restaurant, 2009,” and “My Grandmother as Erté’s Starstruck” in Somos En Escrito
• “One-Night Stand with The Birds in the Background” and “Tequila, Cinnamon, Orange”  in Banango Street
• “Tabloid for the Black Dahlia” and “Tabloid for JonBenét Ramsey” in Bennington Review
• “Self-Portrait with Headphones On” in Third Coast
• “Elegy 2,” “I Leave,” and “La Estrella” in Blackbird

Essays and Creative Nonfiction
“Ghost Story” and “Love Story,” forthcoming in Grist
“Selena Cover Band,” forthcoming in Selena Anthology 
“‘Just Like Heaven,’ The Cure” inColdfront Magazine‘s Poets off Poetry: Song of the Week Series

Awards, Honors, and Grants

• 2020 CantoMundo Fellow
• The Many Deaths of Inocencio, winner, 2019 Berkshire Prize for a First or Second Book of Poetry
• 2019 MacDowell Colony Fellow
• Karankawa, winner of 2016 Society of Midland Authors Award for Poetry
• Karankawa, winner, 2014 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry