Poetry of The Americas | Rafael Courtoisie, Dinapiera Di Donato, Margarita Drago, Laura Lomas, Manuel Adrián López, José Luis Quesada, Ely Rosa Zamora, Lila Zemborain | Art and Literature Series Event

FREE - Auditorium doors open at 5:30 p.m.

In honor of National Library Week and Poetry Month this special event celebrates the poetry of The Americas featuring dramatic readings by distinguished poets Rafael Courtoisie, Dinapiera Di Donato, Margarita Drago, Manuel Adrián López, José Luis Quesada, and Lila Zemborain, followed by a discussion. A few of the poets traveled to New York specially for this event. The poetry reading is bilingual in Spanish and English. The event is produced and introduced by Ely Rosa Zamora. The discussion is moderated in English by Laura Lomas.

Rafael Courtoisie is one of Uruguay's leading writers, with work published in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. The author of six novels, more than sixteen volumes of poetry, and a prolific essayist, he has won both his country's National Prize in Narrative for his first novel, A Dog's Life (1997), and the National Prize in Poetry for his 2002 collection Frontiers of Umbria. He is the recipient of the International poetry prizes Loewe-Visor Foundation, Spain (1995), Plural Prize, Mexico (1991), Bartolomé Hidalgo Prize in Narrative, Uruguay (1994-1996), and the José Lezama Lima International Poetry Prize, Cuba, (2013). He was a Visiting Professor at Florida State University, 1999-2000, and at University of Cincinnati, 2007. In 2006 he was invited by University of Iowa to integrate the International Writing Program. He currently teaches screenwriting at the School of Film of Uruguay, in Montevideo.

Dinapiera Di Donato was born in Venezuela. Since 1999 she lives in the USA. She earned a B.A., an M.A and a DEA in Languages, Literature et Civilizations Des Pays D’expresion Espagnole from Université De Paris VIII. France. She also attended The Graduate Center (CUNY) in New York where she taught Spanish and French Languages. Her research and teaching interests include Creative Writing and Women Writers. She won the national Poetry contest “Octavio Paz Poetry Prize 2012”. She is the author of Contar Aristeguieta (short stories, 2013), Colaterales/ Collateral (poetry, 2013), La Sorda (poetry, 2011), Desventuras del Ocio: Libro de Rachid (poetry, 1996), La Sonrisa de Bernardo Atxaga (short stories, 1995), and Noche con Nieve y Amantes (short stories, 1991). In 2011, she received a grant from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance Center for completing and editing the book of short stories La sortija de Emilia Ibarra.

Margarita Drago is an Argentinean professor, poet and narrator who has lived in the USA since she was released from prison. As former political prisoner and writer she has participated in conferences, colloquia, book fairs and poetry festivals in the USA, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Mexico,  Honduras, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Spain and France. She is the author of the poetry collection Con la memoria al ras de la garganta, New York, 2013; the memoir Fragmentos de la memoria, Recuerdos de una experiencia carcelaria (1975-1980)/ Memory Tracks, Fragments from Prison (1975-1980), New York, 2007, and Hijas de los vuelos (unpublished). Her work has appeared in literary, educational and human rights  journals in the USA,  Latin America and Spain.

Laura Lomas, (Ph.D. Columbia 2001) teaches Latina/o and comparative American literature and feminist theory in the English Department at Rutgers University-Newark, Her first book Translating Empire: José Martí, Migrant Latino Subjects and American Modernities (Duke University Press, 2008), won the MLA Prize for Latina/o and Chicana/o literature and an honorable mention from LASA's Latina/o Section. Lomas is working on a new book entitled In-Between States: Lourdes Casal, Interdisciplinarity and Feminist Intersectionality. She has published numerous essays and book chapters, most recently, an introduction to Jesus Abraham "Tato" Laviera's Bendición: Complete Poetry (Arte Público, 2014), essays in The Latino Nineteenth Century, The Cambridge Companion to Latin@ Literature, and Review: Literature and Arts in the Americas. Lomas co-Directs the Latin@ Studies Working Group and is Faculty Director of "US-Cuban Counterpoints," a new Cuba Study Abroad Program at Rutgers.

Manuel Adrián López was born in Morón, Cuba in 1969. He is a bilingual poet and writer. His work has been published in various literary journals in Spain, United States and Latin America. His published books are Yo, el arquero aquel (Poetry, Editorial Velámenes, 2011), Room at the Top (Short Stories, Eriginal Books, 2013), Los poetas nunca pecan demasiado (Poetry, Editorial Betania, 2013, El barro se subleva (Short Stories, Ediciones Baquiana, 2014) and Temporada para suicidios (Short Stories, Eriginal Books, 2015). His poetry has been included in the anthologies: La luna en verso (Ediciones El Torno Gráfico, 2013) and Todo Parecía (Ediciones La Mirada, 2015). He was awarded Gold Medal by Florida Book Awards in 2013.

José Luis Quesada is a Honduran poet, considered representative of the new lyrical generations of his country. He studied Philology in Costa Rica. He was shortlisted for the prize Juan Ramon Molina Central in Tegucigalpa, and in 1992 UNAH granted him the José Trinidad Reyes Prize in recognition of his work. He has belonged to the cultural groups “La voz convocada” and Tauanka; the first in the city of La Ceiba and the second in Tegucigalpa.His books of poetry include Coming back, (2015), Possible Memory (1990) , Shadow of a White Day (1987), Life as a war (1982), Testimonials Notebooks (1981), and Cause I hope I’ll never come back (1974). As a storyteller he published The False elf (1994). Much of his poetry has been reproduced in the collective book called La voz convocada (1967), and several literary anthologies. He has participated in many International Poetry Festivals.

Ely Rosa Zamora left her native Venezuela after graduating from the National School for the Performing Arts in Caracas. She came to New York in 1998 invited by the legendary Judith Malina to join The Living Theater. In 2009 she received an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University. She is the author of the poetry collections La nitidez del embudo, (2015), Unspecific Object, an artist book in collaboration with Barbara Madsen, (2015), Sin lengua y otras imposibilidades dramáticas, (2013), Sin lengua/No Tongue, (2011), Detrito Olvidado/Forgotten Detritus, artist book in collaboration with Barbara Madsen (2009). Her work has been presented in Argentina, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Italy, Perú, Venezuela and the United States. Her poetry is included in the Anthology Voces para Lilith Literatura contemporánea de temática lésbica en Sudamérica, (Lima: Estruendomudo, 2011), and in the anthology of The Americas Poetry Festival of New York, (New York: Artepoética Press, 2014).

Lila Zemborain is an Argentine poet and critic who has lived in New York since 1985. She is the author of Abrete sésamo debajo del agua (1993), Usted (1998), Guardianes del secreto (2002) / Guardians of the Secret (2009), Malvas orquídeas del mar (2004) / Mauve Sea-Orchids (2007), Rasgado (2006) / Déchiré (2013),  El rumor de los bordes (2011), Diario de la hamaca paraguaya (2014) and, Materia blanda (2014). She has collaborated with artist Martin Reyna in La couleur de l’ eau / El color del agua (2008) and with poet Joan Navarro and artist Pere Salinas in Llum Cinabri / Calma tectónica (2015). Her work has appeared in the art catalogues Alessandro Twombly (Brussels, 2007), Heidi McFall (New York, 2005), and in numerous publications from Latin America, Spain and the US. In 2007 she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship. 

Conceived and organized by Arezoo Moseni, and in its sixth year, Art and Literature Series events bring forth pollinations across the literary and visual arts with readings and discussions by acclaimed artists, authors and poets.

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