Poets Read from Spanish Poetry Anthology, Wednesday at Takoma Park/Silver Spring

On Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010, in P3 Room 102, two local poets will read from their latest anthology. The event is sponsored by the Department of English, Reading, World Languages and the American English Language Program of the Arts/Humanities/Social Sciences Division led by Dr. Amy Gumaer. Dr. Elvira Luna-Escudero-Alie's Spanish literature seminar class (SN216) will be hosting poets Luis Alberto Ambroggio (originally from Argentina) and Carlos Parada Ayala (originally from El Salvador) who are the co-editors of the recently released anthology of poetry written by local Washington, DC poets who write in Spanish. Among the many poets in the anthology, Prof. Robert L. Giron (originally from Nebraska but Texas-raised and a Texan by family line) is also included. The anthology titled "Al Pie de la Casa Blanca: Poeta Hispanos de Washington, DC" ("At the Foot of the White House: Hispanic Poets of Washington, DC") was published by the Academia Norteamericana del a Lengua Espanola, located in New York City, and includes 24 poets. This event which will be mostly in Spanish is open to all who wish to attend. Here below are the biographies of both poets who are co-edtors: Luis Alberto Ambroggio: An internationally known Hispanic-American poet born in Argentina, Luis Alberto Ambroggio has resided in the Washington, D.C. area since 1967. He is the author of eleven collections of poetry published in Argentina, Costa Rica, Spain, and the United States, and holds the honor of having been appointed a member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language and of PEN. In 2004, he won the Spanish TV Award for poems on solitude. Ambroggio's latest books of poetry, La desnudez del asombro (Ed. Lord Byron, Madrid, 2009), Laberintos de Humo (Tierra Firme, Buenos Aires, 2005) and El testigo se desnuda (Puerta de Alcala, Madrid, 2002) have been widely praised in Europe, the US (Diario de las Americas) and Latin America. His poetry and essays have appeared in the US and abroad in newspapers, magazines (including Passport, Scholastic, International Poetry Review, and Hispanic Culture Review), poetry anthologies, textbooks (Paisajes, Bridges to Literature,Voices: Breaking Down Barriers) and award-winning electronic collections of Latino Literature (Alexander Street Press) . His poetry is the subject of a book published by the North-American Academy of the Spanish Language, El Cuerpo y la Letra. Poetica de Luis Alberto Ambroggio, has been translated into several languages and has been recorded in the Archives of Hispanic Literature of the Library of Congress. Carlos Parada Ayala: A recipient of Washington, DC's, Commission on the Arts Larry Neal Poetry Award in 2005, Carlos Parada Ayala co-edited the anthology Al pie de la Casa Blanca: Poetas hispanos de Washington, DC published by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language in New York in July 2010. Co-edited with Argentinean poet Luis Alberto Ambroggio, the US Library of Congress selected this anthology to celebrate 400 years of Hispanic poetry in the United States in September of this year. Parada Ayala is a member Late Night Hours, a recently created a group of Salvadoran poets and is a founding member of ParaEsoLaPalabra, a collective of writers, artists and activists whose goal is to promote the arts, music and literature in the Spanish speaking communities of the Washington, DC metropolitan area. His poetry has appeared in Beltway, Divided City, Arte Poetico, Bark and Diario Colatino's cultural magazine in El Salvador and has participated in his country's International Gathering of Poets. He is currently preparing for publication a poetry collection entitled The Light of the Storm. Parada Ayala graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts, with a degree in Spanish, Latin American and Brazilian literature.