husband, and their two sons in Flushing, Queens. Espaillat's visiting cousins charmed her many local friends and neighbors, as she later described in the poem Translation. Also following Trujillo's assassination, Espaillat's great-uncle, Rafael Brache, his wife, and several of their sons returned permanently to the Dominican Republic. Espaillat's parents, though, did not. Espaillat later recalled, "I was married with children and my parents didn't want to leave us. They'd also made many close friends in the United States; and, of course, many of the people back home had already died, including both of my grandmothers. I believe that it's very common in immigrant communities to have powerful longings for home, but by 1961, my parents' lives were centered in the U.S." In 1964, Espaillat completed her M.S.E. at Queens College. Along with her husband, Espaillat taught English in the New York City public school system, including Jamaica High School in Queens, for many years. In 1990, she chose early retirement and moved with her husband to Newburyport, Massachusetts, to be closer to their two sons and their grandchildren.Their foster son, who had joined the family in 1968, remained in New York City with his wife and stepchildren. Espaillat later recalled that she had enjoyed teaching, but missed poetry deeply. For this reason, her husband had told her, "Why don't you choose early retirement and give more time to what you really love?" In Newburyport, Espaillat began writing poetry almost immediately and has since led the Powow River Poets, the local chapter of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society, which has become a New Formalist chapter due to Espaillat's leadership and influence. Return to poetry Espaillat attended the first West Chester University Poetry Conference, which was founded by New Formalist poets Michael Peich and Dana Gioia, in 1995 and later recalled, "I was the only Hispanic there, but I realized that these people were open to everything, that their one interest was the craft. If you could bring something from another culture, they were open to it." Espaillat subsequently took charge of, "teaching the French Forms and the forms of repetition," but also made sure to teach classes in, "the Spanish and Hispanic examples of the forms" such as the décima and the ovillejo." Due to Espaillat's teaching and encouragement, the ovillejo, particularly, has become very popular among younger New Formalists writing in English. While being interviewed for a book about her