Five Leaves bookshop in association with Smokestack books are hosting an evening of Latin American and Cuban poetry, in celebration of the publication of two new anthologies.

‘Looking for Trouble’ by Roque Dalton

Roque Dalton (1935–1975) is one of the best-known and best-loved poets of twentieth-century Latin America. An extraordinary poet of rebellion and humour, fierce militancy and painful tenderness, his work is still read alongside other guerrilla poets like Otto René Castillo, Javier Heraud, Ernesto Cardenal and Daisy Zamora.

Although his poetry has been widely published in Cuba, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia and the US.

Translated by John Green, ‘Looking for Trouble’ is the first time his work has been published in the UK.

‘Nothing Out of This World: Cuban Poetry, 1952–2000‘

‘Nothing Out of This World’ is an introduction in Spanish and English to the work of thirty-six poets from Cuba writing in the second half of the twentieth-century, including Heberto Padilla, Nancy Morejón, and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez. The oldest poet here, Fina García-Marruz, was born in 1923; the youngest, Damaris Calderón, in 1967. It’s an extraordinary and heady mix, combining African and Spanish influences, realism and surrealism, colloquialism and baroque, experiment and commitment, a lucid and moving introduction to a collective poetic subject that defies all kinds of social oppression.

Admission for this event is £3 and refreshments will be available.

Booking is recommended. To attend this event, please RSVP to fiveleaves.bookshopevents@gmail.com