Nicolás Kanellos

Nicolás Kanellos (born January 31, 1945, in New York City, New York) is founder and former director of Arte Público Press, the oldest and largest Hispanic publishing house, as well as Revista Chicana-Riqueña, the first Hispanic literary magazine which later became The Amerícas Review. He is the Brown Foundation professor of Hispanic studies at the University of Houston.

Biography Nicolás Kanellos was born on January 31, 1945, in New York City, New York, to Puerto Rican and Greek parents. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, near a commercial book bindery. His aunt, Providencia Garcia, developed the Latin division of one of the largest Latin music publishers in the world, and was a significant influence on him.

Kanellos earned a B.A. in Spanish literature in 1966 from Fairleigh Dickinson University and an M.A. in Romance languages from UT Austin in 1968 before earning his doctorate in 1974 in Austin as well. He taught Hispanic literature at Indiana University from 1971 until 1979, when he began teaching at the University of Houston and founded Arte Publico Press. Since its founding Arte Público Press has published over 600 books. While in Indiana he founded Revista Chicana-Riqueña with Luis Davila in 1972.

Awards Source:

1969–1970, Gulbenkian Foundation Fellow 1976, Eli Lilly Foundation Fellow 1979, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow 1979, Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines 1986–1987, Ford Foundation Fellow 1988, White House Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature 1989, American Book Award (publisher-editor) 1996, Denali Press Award, American Library Association 2014, Enrique Anderson Imbert, North American Academy of the Spanish Language 2016, Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica

Selected publications Kanellos, Nicolás (1999). Nochebuena: Hispanic American Christmas Stories, Oxford University Press, Kanellos, Nicolás (2001). Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States, Oxford University Press, Kanellos, Nicolás (2011). Hispanic Immigrant Literature: El Sueño del Retorno, University of Texas Press,