2021 William Aguilar Cultural Arts Award Recipient

Javier Avila, PhD
Poet, Novelist, Professor, and Public Speaker

Javier Ávila, PhD is a celebrated poet, novelist, professor, and public speaker. His illustrious literary career and the massive outreach of his one-man show, The Trouble with My Name, have made him a prominent Hispanic voice. The show is a national phenomenon, with over 180 performances across the U.S. With his message of unity, thousands have embraced the presentation as a profoundly edifying experience that is at once a history lesson on Hispanic heritage, an examination of discrimination in America, a celebration of Puerto Rican culture, and an open platform for a continued conversation about equity, diversity, and inclusion. 

The power of The Trouble with My Name is largely attributed to Ávila’s talent as an educator. In 2015, Ávila was named Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is the first Latino to receive this award. 

In addition to his teaching expertise, Ávila is a gifted and prolific bilingual writer of fifteen books, several of which have won national awards: La simetría del tiempo won the Pen Club Book of the Year Award in 2006; El papel del difunto won the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña Poetry Award in 2010; and Vidrios ocultos en la alfombra earned the Olga Nolla Poetry Award in 2003.  Ávila is the author of the novels The Professor in Ruins (2006), La profesión más antigua (2012), Polvo (2019), and the bestselling thriller Different (2002), which was made into the award-winning movie, Miente (2009). 

Ávila, who was born and raised in Puerto Rico, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Puerto Rico and a Ph.D. in literature and literary criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He taught English at the University of Puerto Rico for eight years. He is a professor of English at Northampton Community College, where he has taught for fifteen years.

 January 2021