Print Page

Semana Poetica


The Dickinson campus rang out with the sound of well-chosen words during the eighth-annual Semana Poética international poetry festival. From the avant-garde sound bytes penned by Moscow’s Lev Rubinstein to the pop-culture sizzle of Dickinson’s poet-in-residence, Adrienne Su, the festival celebrated poetry’s ability to transcend cultural and linguistic divides by showcasing verse in English, Spanish, French, Russian and Hebrew.

The five-day event featured readings by Su, Rubinstein, Nathalie Handal, Emeric de Monteynard, Claudia Aburto Guzman, Andrew Zawacki, Isabel Perez Montalban and student-poet Eliza Cutler ’11.  Poets originating from English-speaking countries presented their works in English only. Poets from other parts of the world read their poems in both English and in their native tongues.

The apex of the festival was its closing event, which featured one reading by each poet and a closing poem by Cutler. The winner of the English department’s Moorehead-Timberlake Prize for poetry, Cutler is co-president of the Belles Lettres Literary Society at Dickinson College and co-editor-in-chief of the Dickinson Review.

 


1of1

  •  Participating poets (from left): Emeric de Monteynard, Claudia Aburto Guzman, Isabel Perez Montalban, Nathalie Handal, Lev Rubinstein, Andrew Zawacki, Adrienne Su and Eliza Cutler '11.
    Semana Poetica
  • Claudia Aburto Guzmán, associate professor of Spanish at Bates College, focuses on Latin American literatures and cultures and the interface between artistic expression and humanitarian efforts at the Mexico-U.S. border. She is also a photographer and mixed-media artist. Her latest project touches upon her experiences in the desert and highlights the influence of photography on her poetry. 
    Semana Poetica
  • Parisian Emeric de Monteynard  is the author of several collections. In "The Little Man Who Was Burning," he writes:  "I thought that I had but to write what I was sure I did not know. The unknown, the uncertain. And, I thought that one could not write – or love – without giving all, keys, access, secrets, and telling to one’s heart not to keep anything for itself." 
    Semana Poetica
  • Nathalie Handal is an award-winning poet, playwright and writer who has lived in  Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world. She has been involved either as a writer, director or producer in over 20 theatrical and/or film productions worldwide. She writes in "January, Amor y Lluvia," "We left together not knowing that weeks later/ I would be looking at him standing on a wooden chair,/ his jeans on, his red belt undone, his shirt off,/ trying to hang a curtain on an uneven window frame." 
    Semana Poetica
  • Isabel Pérez Montalbánwrites about the human conscience. She has participated in important literary festivals such as Barcelona’s Poetry Week, and has published several collections. From her "Roman Bridge": "They used to tell me you had died/ in the middle of a river,/ That your own momentum pushed you/ from a Roman bridge into the current. / And I, just a little girl, /went along with whatever they said…" 
    Semana Poetica
  • Lev Rubinstein took part in the Russian literary underground of the mid-20th century. A central figure in modern Russian experimental literature, he has published collections and poems in German, French, Swedish, Polish and English. Excerpts from his Catalogue of Comedic Novelties include: "Our life is not imagined, but you can’t/ see it clearly from everywhere on earth," and "Life is given to us humans, but in time/ It’s taken back again, so go figure…" 
    Semana Poetica
  • Andrew Zawacki is an American poet, critic, editor, and translator. He has authored three poetry books and has been published in The New Yorker, The Nation, The New Republic, Boston Review, and the Chicago Review. In "Credo," he writes: "You say wind is only wind/ & carries nothing nervous/ in its teeth./ I do not believe it./ I have seen leaves desist/ from moving/ although the branches/ move ... " 
    Semana Poetica
  • Adrienne Su teaches a mixture of literature and creative-writing workshops and classes at Dickinson. Her work has been extensively anthologized and translated to Spanish and Chinese. In "Harvard" she writes about the student experience: "As if boys and girls were the same,/ we wandered into each other’s rooms/ without shoes, breakfasted together,/Marched through the Cambridge snow/ in packs ... We stayed up all night/ debating right and wrong; sometimes/ we called ourselves women/ and men, although it still felt odd." 
    Semana Poetica
  • Eliza Cutler '11 studies English, poetry and education at Dickinson. She plans to teach English after graduating from Dickinson, and says she hopes to "rejuvenate the poetic spirit of youth in America." In "The Color of Skin," she writes: "The desert wears a uniform/ columns against the kiss/of panamerican skies/and copper-colored sands…"
    Semana Poetica
 Participating poets (from left): Emeric de Monteynard, Claudia Aburto Guzman, Isabel Perez Montalban, Nathalie Handal, Lev Rubinstein, Andrew Zawacki, Adrienne Su and Eliza Cutler '11. Prev ImageNext Image