Nancy Mercado (December, 1959) is a writer and educator. She has a doctoral degree from Binghamton University- the State University of New York. She is the author of It Concerns the Madness (Long Shot Productions)[1] and the forthcoming Rooms for the Living: New York Poems featuring an introduction by writer, Ishmael Reed. She served as the editor of, if the world were mine; a children’s anthology published by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), was an editor of Long Shot (1993—2004)[2] and the publication’s editor-in-chief for one of those years. Nancy also served as a contributing editor and writer for Letras Femeninas volume XXXI, No 1: The Journal of the Asociación de Literatura Femenina Hispánica of Arizona State University.
She is one of the featured writers in The Encyclopedia of Hispanic American Literature (Facts on File) and was inducted into The Museum of American Poetics.[3] Nancy was also profiled in Latino Leaders Magazine, Volume 7 No 6.
She has toured throughout the US, Europe and in Canada as a featured poet and conference panelist; an abbreviated list includes: Club 350, Toronto Canada * Eastern New York Correctional Facility; a maximum security prison in New York * Espace Simone de Beauvoir, France * Festival of Arts and Ideas, New Haven, Connecticut * Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival * Kutztown State University, Pennsylvania * La Raza Center, San Francisco, California * New York City Book Expo * New York City Town Hall * New York University in the Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization Conference, New York * Pannonica Jazz Club, France * Rutgers University, New Jersey * The Shakespeare Public Theater, New York * The State University of Illinois * The University of Nantes, France * Wiesbaden, Germany with jazz artist Billy Bang & his Quintet.
Her work has been anthologized in, among others: Pow Wow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience- Short Fiction from Then to Now (Da Capo Press); Kiss the Sky: Starring Jimi Hendrix (Paycock Press); Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community (Agate Publishing); Bowery Women Poems (YBK Publishing); In the Arms of Words: Poems for Tsunami Relief (Foothills Publishing and Sherman Asher Press); From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002 (Thunder’s Mouth Press); Poetry After 911: An anthology of New York Poets (Melville House Publishers); Identity Lessons: Contemporary Writing About Learning to be American (Penguin); Changer L’Amérique Anthologie De La Poésie Protestataire Des USA (Maison De La Poésie) and ALOUD: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café (Henry Holt).
A number of literary magazines have also published her work such as: Columbia University’s City Magazine; El Boletin del Centro from Hunter College-CUNY; GARE MARITIME published in France, New York University publications, Brownstone Magazine and Gallatin Review; and independent magazines, A Gathering of the Tribes; Drum Voices; The Paterson Literary Review; and Rattapallax, among others.
The author and director of 7 theatre plays: Palm Trees in the Snow, Chillin, Planet Earth, It is I; Stay Alive!, Alicia in Projectland coauthored with Pedro Pietri, and AWAY. Nancy’s theatre work has been produced in such venues as The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). Several were produced throughout the US and Puerto Rico and one of the plays was co-authored with renowned writer Pedro Pietri.
Nancy’s film credits include two video productions in the Poetry Spots series directed by Bob Holman and the documentary film, Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writers Dissecting Globalization directed by Jayne Cortez.
She has served as a panelist for the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).
Nancy is the co-founder of El Instituto de Cultural Lola Rodriguez de Tío located in New Jersey.
It Concerns the Madness. Hoboken: Long Shot [4] Productions, 2000.
Anthologies & Textbooks
The Day They Went Shopping. Powwow, American Short Fiction from Then to Now. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, an imprint of Perseus Books Group, Inc., 2009.
I Told You. Celebrating Amiri Baraka at 75.[5] Newark:Independent Publication, 2009.
Biography of Miguel Piñero. The Encyclopedia of Hispanic American Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2009.
For Jimi Hendrix. Fiction & Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix. New York: Paycock Press, 2007.
Milla. Bowery Women Poems. New York: YBK Publishers, Inc., 2006.
AIDS in My World. AIDS in the African American Community. Los Angeles, California: Agate Publishers, 2006.
Salomon Mercado. Poems for Tsunami Relief. New York: Foothills Publishing and Sherman Asher Press, 2005.
Jetties were the Bridges I Crossed, Latino Literature Today. New York: Longman, 2004.
Milla. A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002. Ed. Ishmael Reed. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003.
Going To Work. An Anthology of New York Poets. [6] New Jersey: Melville House Publishers, 2002.
Justice In The Techno Age and Lyric For A New Life. A Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature and Art. Illinois: Third World Press, 2001.
Somalia. A Def Jam. New York: Crown Publishing, 2001.
Jetties Were The Bridges I Crossed. Contemporary Writing About Learning to be American. New York: Viking Penguin, 1999.
Don Portolo. Changer L’Amérique Anthologie De La Poésie Protestataire Des USA. France: Maison De La Poésie, 1998.
On My Return From Puerto Rico To The US. In Defense Of Mumia.[7] New York: Writers and Readers Press, 1996.
Milla, and Juanita. ALOUD, Voices From The Nuyorican Poets Café. [8] New York: Henry Holt, 1994.
Articles
About Face: My Brief Journey as a Female Puerto Rican Poet. Gare Maritime, Nantes, France: Maison de la Poesie, 2000.
Youth Performance Workshops Reach Students in Elizabeth. Resource, New Jersey Performing Arts Center Publication, Newark, NJ, 1996.
