Cervantes Institute, in collaboration with the Feminist Library, presents a workshop on the work of poet Gloria Fuertes, led by designer Eva Megias.
The workshop will begin with a brief introduction to her life and poetic work. Next, two words will be distributed to all attendees for a collective writing exercise. Each participant must choose a word that will spark their imagination. Afterwards, they will be invited to read their writings following the feminist ritual of reading in a circle. Once familiar with the students' own voices, the group will delve into the work of Gloria Fuertes by reciting some of her poems for adults. Throughout the workshop, crucial details of her biography will be revealed, exploring the reasons why she is one of the most beloved Spanish writers, beyond the queer community.
Gloria Fuertes Gloria Fuertes (Madrid, 28 July 1917 - Madrid, 27 November 1998) was a writer of fiction, poetry and theatre, and a prolific author of children's and young adult literature. Her interest in literature began at the early age of five, when she was already writing and drawing her own stories. She published her first poem at the age of fourteen in 1932, under the title Niñez, juventud, vejez... (Childhood, Youth, Old Age...), pursuing the publication of her writings from a young age. At fifteen, she was already reciting her verses on Radio España in Madrid, and at seventeen she wrote her first book of poems, Isla ignorada (Ignored Island).
The 1940s marked her entry into the professional literary world. In the first five years, some of her children's plays and staged poems premiered in various theatres in Madrid. She began working as an editor for the children's magazine Maravillas (from 1939 to 1953), where she published stories, comics and poetry on a weekly basis. In 1942, she met Carlos Edmundo de Ory and joined the poetic movement known as Postismo, actively participating in the magazines Postismo and Cerbatana alongside Ory, Eduardo Chicharro and Silvano Sernesi. She also contributed to another magazine, Chicas (from 1940 to 1945), publishing humorous stories, and to the newspaper Arriba with the comic strips Coletas y Pelines. At the same time, she founded the group Versos con faldas (Verses in Skirts) with María Dolores de Pueblos and Adelaida Lasantas, which spent two years giving recitals and readings in the bars and cafés of the capital.
In 1950, he published Pirulí, and two years later he premiered his first play in verse, Prometeo, which earned him the Valle-Inclán Prize. In 1954, he released Antología Poética y Poemas del suburbio. During these early years of the decade, he organised a travelling children's library for small villages in an effort to alleviate illiteracy, and together with Antonio Gala, Rafael Mir and Julio Mariscal, he founded the poetry magazine Arquero, which he edited until 1954.
From 1955 to 1960, he studied Library Science and English at the International Institute. In 1960, he travelled to the United States for three years after obtaining a Fulbright scholarship to teach Spanish literature at Bucknell University, Mary Baldwin College and Bryn Mawr College. Upon his return, his poetic output was enriched with Ni tiro, ni veneno, ni navaja (1966), Poeta de Guardia (1968) and another of the titles in his poetic corpus, Cómo atar los bigotes al tigre (1969).
Event in Spanish.