The Poetry Foundation Honors Andres Cordoba ‘15

Andres Cordoba, Belmont Hill Class of 2015, was selected by the Poetry Foundation as a 2025 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow. This honor recognizes young poets for their contributions to the artform and helps empower the further development of their work.
 
Mr. Cordoba lives in New York, where he is the co-poetry editor for Big Score Lit and an MFA candidate in fiction at New York University. His work can be found in The Harvard Review, The Gandy Dancer, and Epiphany. He earned a BA from SUNY Purchase and an MFA in poetry from Brown University, where he won the 2024 John Hawkes Prize, the 2024 Edwin Honig Memorial Award, and the 2025 Keith & Rosmarie Waldrop Prize.
 
While he cites “political radicals, surrealists, and Looney Tunes––in that order” as major influences, along with the works of Bob Kaufman, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Natalie Diaz, Earl Sweatshirt, R.A.P Ferreira, and David Berman, Mr. Cordoba prefers to “write from the gut” and discover the significance afterwards.
 
“The thinking work of the poet should be done off the page and the art making should be pure, uncut motion––all fast-twitch muscles, instincts, and nerve,” Mr. Cordoba revealed. “Art is fun. It’s what people do to create hope. Hope is important. It’s not everything. But it is important. I want people to read my work and feel good and empowered––vegetables for the collective soul.”
 
While he does not want the Poetry Foundation honor to overly influence his writing, the fellowship will make a dramatic impact on his ability to help his younger sister through college. “To be able to provide her with financial support because of poetry… I mean, it’s an unmatched, deeply surreal feeling.”
 
Reflecting on how his time at Belmont Hill influenced his path as a writer, Mr. Cordoba credits his experience with English teachers Fran Kirby and Dave Leonardis. “Those two are the reason I’m here today and that is not hyperbole in the slightest. Those two men saw something in me that I couldn’t even fathom, and they gave me their time, their knowledge, their support, and their love in a way most men are incapable of.”
 
It was a short story that Mr. Cordoba wrote as a Fourth Former that caught Mr. Kirby’s eye. “It was truly, truly, truly a horrendous piece of writing,” Mr. Cordoba recalled. “Yet, Mr. Kirby could smell the passion from a mile away, and that’s what good educators do––they meet the student where they’re at and show them their path to full potential.”
 
Mr. Kirby shared that piece of writing with his colleague Mr. Leonardis, who remembers the short story in a different light. “It was the best piece of student writing I had seen in 17 years of teaching.” 
 
While not his English teacher at the time, Mr. Leonardis knew Mr. Cordoba from being his Third B soccer coach the year prior. “There were 30 boys on the team, and only one could play soccer. It was not Andres,” Mr. Leonardis said. “But I liked his personality. He had a sharp wit and he liked to engage people in discussions about the things he loved: sports, comics, movies, and books.”
 
That story would be the first of many opportunities Mr. Leonardis would have to read Mr. Cordoba’s work. Over the course of his time at Belmont Hill, Mr. Cordoba became the president of the Creative Writing Club, a frequent contributor to the student literary magazine The Sextant, and a winner of the Woodbury Public Speaking Contest. “He continually set the bar for the other students,” Mr. Leonardis said, “and his work moved me to tears more than once.” 
 
“I remember thinking Mr. Leo was, like, some superhero. An ex-D1 wrestler who could quote Bruce Springsteen and Good Will Hunting off the cuff and read Nabokov and Sherman Alexie for fun––he was a role model, friend, and editor of my writing all-in-one,” Mr. Cordoba said. “He kept me straight and narrow at a time when I could have––probably should have––really fallen off the tracks. He would always just tell me to put everything else in my life aside––all that angst, loneliness, familial drama, anger––and channel it into my writing. And I never stopped doing that.”
 
The announcement of the fellowship confirmed that the Poetry Foundation had discovered what Mr. Leonardis had the opportunity to see up close during Mr. Cordoba’s time on the Hill. “I knew Andres was an amazing talent and that his work could draw the attention and praise of people smarter than I. I didn’t know if Andres would continue to work on developing his brilliance and sharing it with others, but I should have. He has the heart and the soul of a writer.”
 
Learn more about the fellowship and Mr. Cordoba’s work at the Poetry Foundation.