José Luis Vega

In 2002, the Spanish publishing house Visor published an anthology of Vega's poetry entitled Letra viva. His book of poems, Sínsoras (2013) was published in Mexico by Seix Barral. Madrid's Estampa Gallery published Botella al mar (2013), an artist's book illustrated by Oscar Lagunas. In 2014, Vega published El arpa olvidada: Guía para la lectura de la poesía (Pre-Textos, Spain), an essay on poetry that can be considered Vega's poetic creed. In 2016, the same Valencian publisher released Música de fondo, Vega's most recent collection.

In the prologue to Letra viva, Julio Ortega considers José Luis Vega as the best poet in his country, the privileged product of the great poetic tradition that has made that island a term of the sums of Spain and America, between classical forms and worldly eloquence. The poetry of José Luis Vega has been translated into English, French, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian. He is also author of the collection of essays and poems, Techo a dos aguas (Plaza Mayor, 1998), and of several literary studies among them César Vallejo in Trilce (1983), La visión trágica en la poesía de Pablo Neruda, essay that forms part of The Commemorative Edition of the work of the Chilean poet published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy) and the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010) (Association of Academies of the Spanish Language) and Coloquio de los centauros: Poética the Rubén Darío, in Rubén Darío: del símbolo a la realidad, which also is part of another Commemorative Edition of the Real Academia Española (2016).

Vega was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico to José Vega Serrano and Aida Esther Colón Rivera. He studied in Santurce public schools, graduating from Central High School in 1964. That year he entered the University of Puerto Rico, where he completed undergraduate studies in social sciences. He subsequently began studies in philosophy, then left them to pursue a specialization in Hispanic studies. He completed a master's degree in art in 1975, with a thesis on the poetry of César Vallejo. In 1982, he completed a Ph.D. with the dissertation La poesía de Oliverio Girondo: Vanguardia y tradición.

José Luis Vega (born June 18, 1948) is a Puerto Rican poet.