Edward J. Carvalho is an MFA recipient (Goddard College 2006), and ABD in the Literature and Criticism program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short (Fine Tooth Press, 2007), Chants from the Seven Cities (Guerrilla Ignition, 2009), and the forthcoming manuscript “If the radiance of a thousand suns”: Songs of the American Hiroshima (2011). His poems––once described as “original, innovative, imaginative and brutal”––have been twice-nominated for the Pushcart Prize (2004-2005) and appear along with his essays, reviews, and critical papers in numerous journals throughout the country. He is also co-editor with David B. Downing of Academic Freedom in the Post-9/11 Era (forthcoming, Palgrave 2010) and the guest editor for David B. Downing's Works and Days journal on Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University, which was the subject of considerable national press in three of Stanley Fish's New York Times "Think Again" Blogs. The volume includes his interviews with Noam Chomsky, Martín Espada, and Cornel West and features scholarship from several other notable intellectuals. Additionally, he is the recent recipient of Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Twentieth and Twenty-First Annual IUP Doctoral Fellowships (2006, 2008), a 2010 IUP Professional Development Grant, and employed there with a temporary faculty position in the English Department (Spring 2011).

For more information, please see Mitch James's interview with Edward J. Carvalho published by Quay.

James,Mitch. "Lineage, Boundaries and Form in "If the radiance of a thousand suns": Songs of the American Hiroshima." Interview with Edward J. Carvalho. Quay 3.1 (Spring 2009). Interview conducted in 2008.

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Press Quotes

"[ . . . ] Carvalho appeals to the cynical, skeptical, paranoid schizophrenic in all of us, and by accomplishing that makes us feel all the more normal for being so."––Brett Bowland (Indiana University of Pennsylvania student)

"[Carvalho] has successfully formulated a personal mythology—one that attempts to reconcile humanity’s role in the unpredictable twenty-first century. Although grim and at times melancholy, his poems evoke a certain pathos that encourages the reader/listener to move beyond the synthetic world and into the realm of the metaphysical.

It was an honor to host Mr. Carvalho and our college community looks forward to future visits. I recommend this modern wordsmith for those who dare to embrace work set outside of societal perimeters."
––Stacey L. Mascia (Assistant Professor and Humanities Coordinator, North Country Community College, SUNY)

"For the first time in a long, long time I did not read part of the first poem in a new book of poetry and feel a surge of disappointment. Lucky me: I had the opposite experience with this book [solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short] of amazing and wonderful poems [. . .] Carvalho never let me down; I didn't get just a couple of good poems. I went on to meet all kinds of brilliantly vivid (although often very sad) characters, and am rereading/remeeting them still."
––Dr. Judith Villa (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

"The title indicates a Hobbesian view of the world, and Carvalho’s book is not for the faint of heart, but I couldn’t call the book bleak. It is full of humor, original language and insights."
––Doug Holder, Editor and Publisher (Ibbetson Street Press)

"[Carvalho] has chosen his writers carefully, with certainty, and emphatic substances; they discuss some of the problems, connected to and with 9/11, within the academic society and the ramifications brought on by that particular day and thereafter the changes wrought upon the higher places of learning. [ . . .] This book [Academic Freedom and Intellectual Activism in the Post-9/11 University] takes on a huge subject and huge questions are asked of the academics and [Carvalho] presents, to us the reader, some of the answers, some of the thoughtful dialogues and historical data; with a sense of integrity, with an understanding of what is
happening within our educational facilities that effect us, a nation of individuals."
––Irene Koronas, Reviewer and Poetry Editor (Ibbetson Street Press)

“If Henry Miller, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe had an intellectual love child, this book [solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short] may well have been the result."
––Jennifer M. Woolston (Indiana University of Pennsylvania)

“Carvalho’s words come screaming off the pages. Intense, Angry, Awesome.”
––Brian J. Kenney

“[Carvalho] stirs up a mean plate of angst-ridden chili…he don’t clean the plate or nothing.”
––Ray Ridenour

“I like his exuberance and a kind of whirling energy. Original, innovative, imaginative, brutal––all of these things combine to make his poetry distinctive and special.”
––Dr. James Scrimgeour, Co-Director Graduate Studies, Western Connecticut State University

“His ears are well-acquainted with all sorts of sounds.”
––The Echo

“The intensity of emotion, accompanied by explicit, graphic, and erotic content, and the free-wheeling lines echo the distinctly American voices of Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg.”
––Patricia Daddona, The Newtown Bee

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