Octavio Quintanilla, PhD, Professor of English, has won the Ambroggio Poetry Prize given by the Academy of American Poets for “Las Horas Imposibles/The Impossible Hours,” which will be published by the University of Arizona Press in Spring 2025.

The Ambroggio Prize is given for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. Winners receive $1,000 and publication in the University of Arizona Press, a nationally recognized publisher of emerging and established voices in Latinx and Indigenous literature. 

“Las Horas Imposibles/The Impossible Hours” was co-translated by Quintanilla and Natalia Treviño.

Quintanilla is a former San Antonio Poet Laureate and the author of the poetry collections, “If I Go Missing” (Slough Press, 2014) and “The Book of Wounded Sparrows” (Texas Review Press, 2024). A native of Mexico, Treviño is the author of the poetry collection “Lavando La Dirty Laundry” (Mongrel Empire Press, 2014) and the chapbook “VirginX (Finishing Line Press, 2018).