New York, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 11/28/2011 --phati’tude Literary Magazine is pleased to announce Nancy Mercado as guest editor for its upcoming Winter issue, ¿WHAT’S IN A NOMBRE? Writing Latin@ Identity in America, to be published in February 2012.

Nancy Mercado is a poet, editor, playwright, activist and educator whose work focuses on the Puerto Rican experience in the United States and in Puerto Rico, environmental issues, and on various kinds of injustice. She is considered to be part of the second wave of writers, along with Martin Espada, that make up the Nuyorican literary movement. Mercado was featured in the PBS NewsHour Special: America Remembers 9/11. Also featured in The Encyclopedia of Hispanic American Literature (Facts on File) and inducted into The Museum of American Poetics, Mercado was profiled in Latino Leaders Magazine, as "one of the most celebrated members of the Puerto Rican literary movement in the Big Apple." Mercado's work has been extensively anthologized and she served, for eleven years, as an editor of Long Shot and as the publication's editor-in-chief for one of those years. The author of the poetry collection, "It Concerns the Madness" (Long Shot Productions), Mercado received her Ph.D. from Binghamton University, SUNY. She is currently a professor and teaches in New York City.

phati’tude Literary Magazine is guest-edited once a year by a writer of prominence, usually one whose work was previously published in the magazine. “Our guest-editor policy was designed to introduce readers to different literary circles and tastes, and to offer a fuller representation of the range and diversity of contemporary letters than would be possible under a single editorship,” explains Gabrielle David, editor-in-chief of the publication. “I have known Nancy Mercado for years . . . I met her when she was editing Long Shot journal during the 1990s, a time when a transformation of space, performance and publishing was taking place in New York City’s literary scene. She has always been a great supporter of phati’tude and we’ve had the opportunity to publish her work in the past. The phati’tude editorial team is very excited about her pulling the reigns on what we expect will be our best issue yet.”

¿WHAT’S IN A NOMBRE? Writing Latin@ Identity in America sets out to investigate the evolution of the terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” and whether or not there is or ever was a group to which it applies without being reductive. This groundbreaking issue will feature poetry, essays, interviews, short stories, translations and artwork that address the essential question: ¿Qué hay en un nombre? What’s in a name? ¿What’s in a nombre?

Mercado says “I wanted to gather the symphony of diverse cultural identities that have been lumped into one category and the amazing range of our voices which are sometimes mistakenly considered ‘one-note.’ We are the only large ‘minority’ group in America classified by our tongue, even when some of us don’t speak it very well or don’t speak it at all. In the process of defining ourselves and understanding the glorious amalgamation of people we represent, I want to gather material that can help to explain or to question some basic things about us and who we are. What are our various histories? How wide are our racial, social and religious diversities? How do we define ourselves? What defines “Latino” literature and our place in the American literary canon?”

The submission deadline for ¿WHAT’S IN A NOMBRE? Writing Latin@ Identity in America is Friday, January 6, 2012. Submission guidelines are available on phati’tude’s website.