Join us online for a bilingual poetry event in English and Spanish with four acclaimed authors whose voices brazenly reveal the injustices of corrupt governments, political exile, forced displacement, as well as unabashedly celebrate the joys and complexities of their multicultural heritage. Through their literary work, each poet explores their own personal histories, their own passionate desires, and their own journeys across the Americas. The reading features Venezuelan poets Lisbeth Coiman, author of the recently published bilingual poetry collection Uprising/Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press), and Leonora Simonovis, author of Study of the Raft, winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry, Mexican-Salvadorian poet Iris de Anda, author of Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent (Flowersong Press), and East L.A.-born poet Olga García Echeverría, author of Falling Angels: Cuentos y Poemas (Calaca Press).
Zoom link will be shared 24 hours before and on the day of the reading
About the authors:
Lisbeth Coiman is a writer and educator from Venezuela. Her debut book, I Asked the Blue Heron: A Memoir (2017) explores the intersection between immigration and mental health. Her poetry collection, Uprising / Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, 2021) portrays the faces of the uprising in Venezuela’s complex political unrest and draws attention to the unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the once-wealthy nation. Coiman lives in Los Angeles, CA. https://lisbethcoiman.com.
Leonora Simonovis is a Venezuelan American writer and the author of the poetry collection Study of the Raft, winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry. She lives in San Diego, CA, and teaches Latin American literature and creative writing in Spanish at the University of San Diego. Her work has appeared in Gargoyle, Kweli Journal, Diode Journal, and Inverted Syntax, among others. Her work explores issues of displacement, political surveillance, exile, and womanhood in relation to the land and the environment.
Iris De Anda is a Guanaca Tapatia poet, speaker & musician who has been featured with KPFK & KPFA Pacifica Radio, organized with Academy of American Poets, performed at Los Angeles Latino Book Festival, Feria del Libro Tijuana, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Cuba and is named one of Today's Revolutionary Women of Color. Author of Codeswitch: Fires from Mi Corazon & Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent.
Olga García Echeverría was born and raised in East Los Angeles, California, and is the author of Falling Angels: Cuentos y Poemas (Calaca Press and Chicha Press). Her poetry and essays appear in numerous anthologies, print magazines, and online literary venues. She has been an educator in the literary arts for over 25 years and currently teaches literature in the Chicanx Latinx Studies department at the California State University of Los Angeles. For the past decade, under the leadership of Poets & Writers and California Center for the Book, she has worked as a bilingual workshop leader for the Rural Libraries Tour, which facilitates creative writing workshops in rural and underserved areas of California. She and Maylei Blackwell are the literary executors for the beloved Colombian American lesbian poet and publisher tatiana de la tierra.