New Dominion Bookshop will host an in-person reading in Spanish and English with poet Fernando Valverde on Friday, Oct. 1, from 7-8 p.m. in honor of his new book, America.
Valverde will be reading his poems in Spanish, and UVA professor Samuel Amago will be reading translations in English. America will be released in a bilingual edition from Copper Canyon Press in late September.
This event is free to attend and open to the public. The bookshop recommends arriving early for the best seating.
For more information, visit ndbookshop.com.
In Valverde’s America, “sorrow is ancient.” Mournfully lyrical, politically sharp, with a sweeping view of American roots, dysfunctions, and ideals—as if from above, and yet also from within—this is a book that deconstructs the legacy of empire.
From the Mississippi River to Fulton Avenue, from slavery to “lone wolf” shooters, Valverde grieves but does not wince away from all that is lost to greed and a culture of violence, painting an urgent portrait of “the thirst of America / a smile satisfied to death.”
Valverde is one of the preeminent poets writing in the Spanish language today, and he has received international acclaim for his contributions to the art of poetry. Born in Granada, Spain, Valverde has been awarded some of the most prestigious awards for Spanish poetry, and his books have been published across Europe and the Americas.
In 2014, his book The Insistence of Harm received the Book of the Year award from the Latino American Writers Institute of the City University of New York. Before coming to the US, Valverde served as a foreign correspondent for Spain’s major paper, El Pais, covering war zones in the Balkans and the Middle East. He has been the director of the International Festival of Poetry in Granada, and he is currently a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Virginia.
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