Richard Blanco Biography and Wiki
Richard Blanco is an American poet, civil engineer, public speaker, and author well-known for being the fifth poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration. His first poem in the United States presidential inauguration was “One Today” for Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
Blanco is the first immigrant, the first openly gay person, the youngest person, the first Latino to be the U.S. inaugural poet. Some of his books include City of a Hundred Fires (which received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press), How to Love a Country, Directions to The Beach of the Dead (recipient of the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center) as well as Looking for The Gulf Motel (recipient of the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award).
Blanco has authored the memoirs For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey as well as The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, winner of the Lambda Literary Prize
Richard Blanco Age and Birthday
Richard is 53 years old as of 2020. He was born on February 15, 1968, in Madrid, Spain. He celebrates his birthday on February 15 every year and his birth sign is Aquarius.
Richard Blanco Height and Weight
Richard stands at an average height and has moderate weight. He appears to be quite tall in stature of his photos, relative to his surroundings, which are anything to go by. However, details regarding his actual height and other body measurements are currently not publicly available. We are keeping tabs and will update this information once it is out.
Richard Blanco Early Life and Education
When Blanco’s mum was seven months pregnant, the family moved from Cuba to Madrid where he was born. After about one month, the family moved to New York City. She was brought up and attended school at Miami. He is an Alma mater of Florida International University.
Richard Blanco Family
Richard was born and raised by his parents in the United States. Our efforts to find out more about his family came to no avail as no such information is publicly available. Thus, the identity of Richard’s parents is still unclear. It is also not known if he has any siblings. We will update this section once this information is available.
Richard Blanco Wife, Is Richard Blanco Married?
Richard came openly as gay.
Richard Blanco Gay
Richard is a married man. He is married to Dr. Mark Neveu. Dr. Mark Neveu is a well-renowned research scientist. The two met while Richard was in Connecticut. Blanco moved and traveled to Spain, New England, Italy, Cuba, France, Guatemala as well as Brazil. He was driven by the desire to examine the essence of a place and belonging. Richard and his longtime partner, Mark moved in the year 2002 to Washington, DC.
There they taught the Arlington County Detention Facility, Georgetown and American universities as well as The Writers Center. It is not known if by any means the duo has any children. We as well don’t know when the pair tied the knot. This section is still under review and will be updated as soon as it is available.
Richard Blanco Net Worth
Richard’s net worth is estimated to be between $1 million and $5 million dollars. This includes his assets, money, and income. His primary source of income is his career as a poet, civil engineer, public speaker, and author. Through his various sources of income, Richard has been able to accumulate a good fortune but prefers to lead a modest lifestyle.
Richard Blanco Measurements and Facts
Here are some interesting facts and body measurements you should know about Blanco.
Richard Blanco Bio and Wiki
- Full Names: Richard Blanco
- Popular As: Richard Blanco
- Gender: Male
- Occupation / Profession: Poet
- Nationality: American
- Race / Ethnicity: Spanish
- Religion: To be Updated
- Sexual Orientation: Gay
Richard Blanco Birthday
- Age / How Old?: 52 years
- Zodiac Sign: Aquarius
- Date of Birth: February 15, 1968
- Place of Birth: Madrid, Spain
- Birthday: February 15
Richard Blanco Body Measurements
- Body Measurements: To be Updated
- Height / How Tall?: Average
- Weight: Moderate
- Eye Color: To be Updated
- Hair Color: To be Updated
- Shoe Size: To be Updated
Richard Blanco Family and Relationship
- Father (Dad): To be Updated
- Mother: To be Updated
- Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): To be Updated
- Marital Status: Married
- Wife/Spouse or Husband/Spouse: Dr. Mark Neveu
- Children: To be Updated
Richard Blanco Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth: $1 million-$5 million
- Salary: Under Review
- Source of Income: His professional career as a poet, civil engineer, public speaker as well as an author
Richard Blanco Poetry
When Richard’s mum was seven months expectant, their family moved from Cuba to Madri where Blanco was born. After about one and a half months the moved to New York City in the United States. Blanco, only three months old had belonged to three countries. This foreshadows the concerns of place and belonging that would shape his life and work. The family later settled in Miami, Florida, United States. It is at Miami where he was brought up and educated. He grew up among close-knit Cuban exiles.
Growing up with them instilled in him a strong sense of community, dignity, as well as the identity that he’d carry into his adult life as a writer. Since his childhood, Richard was passed by a strong creative spirit. He excelled in math and the sciences. Him being best in the two subjects, he was encouraged by his parents to pursue engineering. They believed that this would ensure a more stable and rewarding career for their son. He agreed and joined Florida International University where he earned his degree in 1991.
He began working as a consulting civil engineer in Miami. Richard was compelled to express his creative side through writing in his mid-20s. He was prompted by questions of cultural identity and his personal history. He decided to go back to school. He again joined Florida International University where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 1997. He was mentored by the poet Campbell McGrath while at Florida International University.
His first book of poetry was the City of a Hundred Fires. The book was published in the heart of 1998 to critical acclaim. It won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. This collection explored Richard’s cultural yearnings and contradictions as a Cuban-American. He captured the details of his transformational first trip to Cuba(his figurative homeland). The book sold very well. After it’s success he did take a hiatus from his engineering career.
Richard accepted a position at Central Connecticut State University. There he worked as a professor of creative writing. It is her, him living in Connecticut, where he met his love, Dr. Mark Neveu. He was driven by the desire to examine the essence of a place and belonging. Richard and his longtime partner, Mark moved in the year 2002 to Washington, DC. There they taught the Arlington County Detention Facility, Georgetown and American universities as well as The Writers Center.
Richard in the year 2004, returned to Miami. Ther he resumed his engineering career. As a professional engineer, he used to design several town revitalization projects; poet by night. He also began working on another collection before moving once again. This time again it was in Bethel, Maine, where he sought the peace and tranquility of nature. Richard completed writing his third book while in Maine. His third book was Looking for The Gulf Motel which was published in 2012.
The book-related Blanco’s complex navigation through his cultural, sexual, and artistic identities. It did receive the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Thom Gunn Award, as well as the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Poetry. In the year 2012, Richard was selected by former, United States President, Barck Obama to serve as the fifth presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history. He followed the footsteps of the likes of poets Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. He became the youngest, first gay as well as the first Latino to have such a role.
During the inauguration, he read ‘One Today’. ‘One Today’ was an original poem he wrote for the occasion. The inauguration was held on January 21, 2013. In the year 2015, a children’s book of his presidential inaugural poem, One Today, in collaboration with renowned illustrator Dav Pilkey was released. Richard, in his first prose publication, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey (2013), he shared very emotional details: his experiences as a presidential inaugural poet. He as well reflected on his understanding of what it means to be an American.
Richard after the inauguration was named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Rhode Island, Macalester College as well as Colby College. Richard’s memoir, The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood (2014) is a hilarious, inspiring as well as a poignant exploration of his coming-of-age as the child of Cuban immigrants. In that memoir, he also points out of his attempts to understand his place in America while grappling with his burgeoning artistic as well as sexual identities.
The memoir received the 2015 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir as well as the 2015 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Richard’s poems were featured by The fine-press book Boundaries (2017), a collaboration with photographer Jacob Hessler. The fine-press book paired with Hessler’s photographs in the featuring of his poems. They did investigate the boundaries of race, gender, class, and ethnicity, among many others; and challenged the physical, imagined, and psychological dividing lines—both historic and current—that shadow the United States.
In the collection of poems How to Love a Country (Beacon Press) which was published in 2019, Richard continues to invite a conversation with all Americans. He achieved this through h an oracular yet intimate and accessible voice. He does address the complexities as well as the contradictions of our nation’s unresolved sociopolitical matters. These poems dig deep into the very marrow of our nation. It interrogates our past and presents. It grieves injustices. It as well noted the nation’s flaws.
However, they as well remembered to celebrate the nation’s ideals and cling to hope that American could as well as ought someday to be a country where all narratives converge into one—a country we can all be proud to live and where we can all truly thrive. Richard has continued through the art of his occasional poetry to help advance causes, mark important milestones as well as connect communities. Richrd in order to help heal the emotional wounds of the Boston Marathon bombings, he did writer “Boston Strong.” This is a song he performed at a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park as well as at the TD Boston Garden Benefit Concert.
Richard has as well written and performed occasional poems for organizations and events which include the Fragrance Awards at Lincoln Center, the re-opening of the U.S. embassy in Cuba, the Tech Awards of Silicon Valley as well as Freedom to Marry. The Academy of American Poets in the year 2015, chose Richard to serve as its first Education Ambassador. Richard has received honorary doctorates from Macalester College, the University of Rhode Island as well as Colby College. He has also been named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.
Richard has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NPR’s All Things Considered, major media from around the world, including CNN, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, AC360 as well as BBC. His poems have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies which include: the Best American Poetry series, The Nation,, Condé Nast Traveler, The Nation, the Huffington Post as well as The New Republic. Alongside Ruth Behar, Richard is co-creator of the blog Bridges to/from Cuba: Lifting the Emotional Embargo. The blog does provide a cultural as well as n artistic platform where they do share the real lives and complex emotional histories of thousands of Cubans across the globe
Richard Blanco Awards and Achievements
Richard is undoubtedly a fine poet, civil engineer, public speaker as well as an author as outlined in the following awards:
- 1997: Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
- 1997: Miami Beach Art Council Grant
- 1999: Florida Individual Artist Fellowship
- 2000: John Ciardi Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference
- 2002: Ronald D. Bayes Writer-in-Residence Fellowship from St. Andrew’s College
- 2003: Residency Fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
- 2006: Florida Individual Artist Fellowship
- 2006: PEN/Beyond Margins Award for Directions to the Beach of the Dead
- 2007: Florida Artist Fellowship
- 2013: Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, Looking for the Gulf Motel
- 2013: Maine Literary Award for Poetry, Looking for the Gulf Motel
- 2013: Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow
- 2013: United States Fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet
- 2013: Paterson Poetry Prize
- 2013: Honorary Doctor of Letters from Macalester College
- 2014: Honorary Doctor of Letters from Colby College
- 2014: Honorary Doctor of Letters from University of Rhode Island
- 2014: International Latino Awards Winner: Best Biography – Spanish or Bilingual, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey
- 2014: Honorary Degree from Maine College of Art
- 2015: Maine Literary Award for Memoir, The Prince of los Cocuyos
- 2015: Lambda Literary Award for Gay Memoir, The Prince of los Cocuyos
- 2016: Florida International University Distinguished Alumni Torch Award
- 2016: Honorary Doctor of Letter from Lesley University
- 2017: Harold Keables Chair of English, Iolani School, Hawaii
- 2018: Lunder Institute for American Art, Artist in Residence
- 2018: Inter-American Dialogue Leadership for Americas Award for Outstanding Cultural Contributions
- 2019: Gerda Haas Award for Excellence In Holocaust and Human Rights Education and Advocacy
- 2019: Advocate Magazine 104 Champions of Pride
- 2019: Honorary Doctor of Letters from University of Miami (“Teach U, Then” Poem)[
- 2019: Carnegie Corporation Great Immigrants Award Honoree
Frequently Asked Questions About Richard Blanco
Who is Richard Blanco?
Richard Blanco is an American poet, civil engineer, public speaker as well as an author. Richard is the fifth poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration.
How old is Richard Blanco?
Richard was born on February 15, 1968, in Madrid, Spain. He is 52 years as of 2020. He celebrates his birth on February 15 every year.
How tall is Richard Blanco?
Blanco stands at an average height, he has not shared his height with the public. His height will be listed once we have it from a credible source.
Where did Richard Blanco attend college?
When Blanco’s mum was seven months pregnant, the family moved from Cuba to Madrid where he was born. After about one month, the family moved to New York City. She was brought up and attended school at Miami. He is an Alma mater of Florida International University.
What nationality is Richard Blanco?
Richard is an American national.
How many siblings does Richard Blanco have?
After doing our research, details about his parents are not known to the public and it is also not known if he has any siblings. This information will be updated as soon as it is available.
Is Richard Blanco married?
While living in Connecticut, he met his current life partner, Dr. Mark Neveu, a renowned research scientist.
How much is Richard Blanco worth?
Richard has an approximate net worth of $1 million-$5 million. This amount has been accrued from his leading roles in the entertainment industry.
Is Richard Blanco dead or alive?
Blanco is still alive and in good health. There have been no reports of him being sick or having any health-related issues.
Where does Richard Blanco live?
Because of security reasons, Blanco has not shared his precise location of residence. We will immediately update this information if we get the location and images of his house.
Richard Blanco Social Media Contacts
- Youtube
- Tiktok
- Website