Reading by Poet and Translator Francisco Aragón

Reading by Poet and Translator Francisco Aragón
Thursday Mar 24, 2011, 7:30pm
Harmon Room, DeWitt Wallace Library
Macalester College, St Paul MN
Free and open to the public

Mediating influences of English and Spanish language poetry - Walt Whitman to Jack Spicer, Ruben Darío to Federico García Lorca - Francisco Aragón’s voice is unusual, multicultural, innovative and wholly contemporary. His second collection of poems, Glow of Our Sweat, realigns translation as critical to the poet’s craft, reminding us of its status as a preeminent mode of discourse in poetry through the ages. Francisco Aragón also plays a major role in shaping contemporary, U.S. bilingual poetry traditions as editor of Canto Cosas, a book series out of Bilingual Press and as a Vice President on the board of directors of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). His is the author of two books of poetry, Glow of Our Sweat and Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press 2005). He also edited the anthology, The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press 2007). Before publishing his own volumes of poetry, Aragón made a name for himself as translator of Chicano poet Francisco X. Alarcón, García Lorca, and Gerardo Diego. Born in California, Aragón lived for a decade in Madrid before returning to the U.S. to complete his MFA at the University of Notre Dame, where he is the director of Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS). His reading will be followed by a reception.

Free and open to the public - sponsored by the Dept of English.