Translating Cultures
Latina/o Writer’s Festival comes to Miami
For three days in April, Miami University will host Translating Cultures, a writers festival that will bring together an extraordinarily talented group of Latina/o and Latin American poets, novelists, playwrights and performance artists, the likes of which have never before gathered in Southwest Ohio. The organizers hope that these readings and performances will bring a new awareness and appreciation of the work of these writers. Through the generosity of the John W. Altman Humanities Scholar-in-Residence Program, all readings and presentations will be free and open not only to the Miami University community but to the general public.
Wednesday, April 1st will focus on Latin American poetry and issues of translation, with readings in Spanish and English from world-renowned poets. From Colombia: Armando Romero. From Mexico: Elsa Cross, Jorge Fernández Granados, Myriam Moscona, Maria Rívera, Claudia Posadas, Pedro Serrano, and Victor Toledo. From Venezuela: Arturo Gutierrez. And from California by way of New York: Rodrigo Toscano.
Thursday, April 2nd will begin with a poetry reading by Victor Toledo; next up is a discussion of the Kingsborough Codex, a copy of which is owned by Miami’s King Library Special Collections, at 1:30 p.m. in King Library Room 320. Miami Professor Emeritus Ramón Layera will lead the presentation. Later in the day, our focus will shift to Latina/o fiction. Dominican-American novelist Angie Cruz and Mexican-American novelist Alex Espinoza will read in the late afternoon, while on Thursday night, Dominican-American novelist and 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction, Junot Díaz, will read in the Heritage Room in the Shriver Center.
Friday, April 3rd will be devoted to Latino playwriting and performance. In the afternoon, there will be a staged reading of Carlos Morton’s well-known one-act play, El Jardín, followed by Rodrigo Toscano’s Collapsible Poetics Theater. The festival will conclude Friday evening with La Vida Loca: An apolitical in-your-face odyssey of a Mexican Immigrant, a one-man performance piece by Carlos Manuel. All readings and performances except for Junot Díaz’s Thursday night reading and Ramón Layera’s lecture will take place in the Leonard Theater in Peabody Hall on the Miami Campus.
For a complete list of reading times and locations, please check the schedule. For further information, please call: 513-529-5221.
Books by our many talented authors will be available for sale and signing following the readings.