Binghamton University breeds more than just accountants, engineers and unemployment. We also breed poets, like Metta Samá and José Antonio Rodríguez. They presented their work Tuesday, April 16, as part of the ongoing Spring Readers Series.

“I wrote furiously while I was at Binghamton,” Rodríguez said. “I would sit down and just write for hours.”

Rodríguez received his doctorate in English with a concentration in creative writing from Binghamton University. In 2009, he received the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award for his work, and in 2011, Rodríguez’s work was compiled and published in a book titled “The Shallow End of Sleep.” His most recent work, “The Backlit Hour,” won the Stephen F. Austin University Press Poetry Prize.

Rodríguez was born in Mexico but moved to south Texas at age four. The local landscape and Rodríguez’s identity struggle are defining influences in his work.

Rodríguez chose to study in Binghamton to get “a different perspective, far away from Texas and the place [he] grew up.” Binghamton is certainly a far cry from the warm, dry climate he was accustomed to, but Rodríguez was surprised by the lack of a Mexican presence on campus.

Despite his growing success as a poet in Binghamton University’s doctoral program, Rodríguez felt the strong divide between the identity he constructed in the U.S. and the one he “left behind” in Mexico. His poem “Freshman Class Schedule” from “The Shallow End of Sleep” echoes with harsh sincerity the struggles and insecurities he faced: “Brown like the Dairy Queen workers/ Brown like the drop-outs/ Brown like the juvies/ Brown like the machos.”

While Rodríguez delves into personal issues through a narrative structure with occasional abstraction, Samá tends to embrace moments of intimacy and give them an otherworldly feel through language.

“I like to experiment with form a lot,” Samá said. “For example, a lot of poets I’ve read like to write poetry using musical forms. I’ve written a few poems based on an Arabic form called Mawwal, which relies on non-metric improvisation.”

Samá is the author of the poetry collections “South of Here” and “Nocturne Trio” and recieved a doctorate in English literature and creative writing with concentrations in African diasporic studies and PIC (Philosophy, Interpretation & Culture) from Binghamton University.

Samá explores themes of love, sex and the limitations of language paired with imagined worlds. Her upcoming works feature an imagined world in which men and women cannot fully use language to communicate with each other nor describe the world around them.

“I don’t have a set structure when I write,” Samá said. “I write when I can. I teach English courses at a college level so it’s hard to find time between teaching and everything else. I carry a notebook around with me, listen and watch what’s going on around me, and if something strikes I’ll write it down.”

In addition to her creative work, Samá has published scholarly work on Dionne Brand, Terrance Hayes, Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison. She also considers herself a painter and “amateur photographer” who “perfected the art of iPhone photography.”

The final Spring Readers Series event takes place at 8 p.m. today in Science 1, room 149. The event will feature a reading from Martin Espada, winner of the Binghamton University Milt Kessler Book Award in Poetry for “The Trouble Ball.” Espada has published more than 15 books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. This free event is open to all.