Reading of Honored Poets: Rocío Silva Santisteban, Concha García, and Rita Segato. Award-winning poet and finalist of the VII Juana Goergen Poetry Prize: Paola Assad Barbarino (winner) and Fermina Ponce (finalist)
Live music by Sol Andino.
Concha García was born in La Rambla (Córdoba, Spain) in 1956. She has lived most of her life in Barcelona and currently resides in Córdoba. She holds a degree in Hispanic Philology from the University of Barcelona. García has published numerous books of poetry, including Por mi no arderán los quicios ni se quemarán las teas (Aula Negra Prize, University of León, 1987), Ya nada es rito (First Poetry Prize Barcarola, 1988), Ayer y calles (Jaime Gil de Biedma Prize, 1994), Cuántas Llaves (1998), Árboles que ya florecerán (2001), Lo de ella (2003), Acontecimiento (2008), El día anterior al momento de quererle (2014), Las proximidades (2016), Cuota de mal (2022), Lugares (2024), and Ya nada es rito y otros poemas. Obra reunida 1980–2003. Her work has been included in several anthologies and translated into English, Italian, Arabic, Turkish, French, Chinese, Portuguese and Swedish.
Rita Segato (Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine-born writer, anthropologist, and feminist activist, recognized as one of Latin America’s most influential thinkers on gender, violence, and coloniality. She has authored extensive research on gender relations, racism, and structural violence, and has been described as a leading feminist anthropologist of her generation. Segato holds advanced degrees in anthropology and serves as a professor and UNESCO Chair in Anthropology and Bioethics. Her work has been influential internationally in academic and social justice contexts.
Rocío Silva-Santisteban Manrique (Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian writer, poet, lawyer, journalist, and political figure. She has published numerous poetry collections and fiction works, including Asuntos Circunstanciales, Ese oficio no me gusta, Mariposa Negra, Condenado Amor, Turbulencia, Las Hijas del Terror, and La máquina de limpiar la nieve. Some of her poems have been translated into English, German, French, Romanian, and Greek, and her work is included in several anthologies of contemporary Latin American poetry.
Paola Assad Barbarino (Caracas, Venezuela / based in New York) is a poet and visual artist based in New York. Her work explores diasporic pain and its transformations. She was a finalist in the III Rafael Cadenas Young Poetry Contest (La Poeteca, Caracas, 2017) with her poem “El Rapto.” Her writing has been featured in anthologies such as Liberoamericanas: 140 poetas latinoamericanas (Libero, Barcelona, 2018) and UBICUO (Lecturas de Arraigo, Madrid, 2021).
Fermina Ponce (Bogotá, Colombia) is a social communicator and journalist with a Master’s in organizational communication management from Universidad de La Sabana, Bogotá, and a Master’s in creative writing from the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. Her poetry collections Al desnudo and Mar de (L)una (Editorial Oveja Negra) received honorable mentions at the ILBA awards in 2018 and 2019. Her book Se llamará piedra (Sudaquia Editores) received an honorable mention as Best Single-Author Poetry Book, earning the Juan Felipe Herrera Prize. She has also written and published books in nonfiction.
