The Meaning of the Shovel - Softcover

As a poet, Martin Espada acts as an advocate for the Latino community in the United States, particularly the immigrant working class. 'The Meaning of the Shovel' brings together all his poems about work, several of which are previously unpublished."

Martín Espada has published more than fifteen books as a poet, editor, critic and translator, including The Trouble Ball, Imagine the Angels of Bread, The Republic of Poetry (a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize) and Alabanza: New and Selected Poems. He has published two previous books with Smokestack, Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas and His Hands Were Gentle: Selected Lyrics of Victor Jara. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, among them the Shelley Memorial Award, an American Book Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. Espada is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.