Steven P. Schneider, Poet, is the founder of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Professor Schneider, an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters, has pioneered the teaching of culturally relevant literature at UTRGV and through his NEA Big Read grants developed innovative community literacy programming.

He is the co-creator with his artist wife Reefka of two bilingual, ekphrastic exhibits and books: Borderlines: Drawing Border Lives / Fronteras: dibujando las vidas fronterizas and The Magic of Mariachi / La Magia del Mariachi. Steven and Reefka have recently created a new exhibit entitled Last Poet in the Woods that will premiere at Quinta Mazatlán in McAllen, Texas in February 2025. Professor Schneider has presented his work and given numerous readings and workshops for both teachers and students throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

Professor Schneider is also the author of the poetry collections Unexpected Guests and Prairie Air Show. His poetry has been featured on NPR Morning Edition and in American Life in Poetry. His scholarly books on contemporary American poetry include A.R. Ammons and the Poetics of Widening Scope and two edited collections of essays entitled The Contemporary Narrative Poem: Critical Crosscurrents and Complexities of Motion: The Long Poems of A.R. Ammons.

In 2018 he was invited to travel to Hengyang Normal University in Hunan Province, China for the opening of the exhibit The Magic of Mariachi. Steven’s poems were translated into Chinese for this show and his work has also been translated into Spanish, Hebrew, and Japanese.

His awards include five Big Read grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Poetry Fellowship from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. In 2023 Professor Schneider received the Faculty Excellence Distinguished Career Award from UTRGV.

You can see news and reviews of the Schneiders’ exhibits and books on their website at the button below.