Poetry Reading , Discussion &
Book Signing w/ Francisco Aragón, Patricia Bejarano Fisher, Katie King, Yvette Neisser
Thursday, November 5, 7:00 pm
Award-winning Spanish poetry translators present new books and discuss the art of translation. Yvette Neisser and Patricia Fisher read from Venezuelan poet María Teresa Ogliastri's From the Diary of Madame Mao, winner of the inaugural Carnegie Mellon University Press Translation Prize; Francisco Aragón reads from Spanish generation of ’27 poet Gerardo Diego's Handbook of Foams, followed by a discussion moderated by Katie King and book signing.
Presenter Bios
Francisco Aragón’s work as a translator includes four books, most recently Handbook of Foams/Manual de espumas (2026) by Gerardo Diego. A native of San Francisco, California, he’s also translated the work of Rubén Darío, Federico García Lorca, and Francisco X. Alarcón. For more information: http://franciscoaragon.net
Patricia Bejarano Fisher is a former Spanish instructor and learning materials developer at the University of Maryland. Her translations include poems in Laura Shovan’s The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary; Bridges, a trilingual collection of poems by Lidia Kosk in Polish, English, and Spanish (unpublished); and the co-translation of Maria Teresa Ogliastri’s South Pole/Polo Sur.
Katie King is a journalist and literary translator who worked as a foreign correspondent and editor in Europe and Latin America and holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies. Her most recent translation, Marta Sanz’s My Clavicle and Other Massive Misalignments (Unnamed Press 2025), has been shortlisted for the ALTA/Spain-USA Foundation Translation Prize. She also translates the poetry and prose of Spain’s Luis García Montero.
Yvette Neisser is an award-winning poet, Spanish translator, and founder of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network (DC-ALT). Her poems, translations, and essays have appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus, Tikkun, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Split This Rock’s The Quarry. She has taught writing and translation at The George Washington University, The Writer’s Center, and other institutions. https://www.yvetteneisser.net/
Book Info
From the Diary of Madame Mao
By María Teresa Ogliastri, translated by Yvette Neisser and Patricia Bejarano Fisher
Winner of the Carnegie Mellon University Press Translation Prize
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/F/bo278103615.html
Handbook of Foams / Manual de espumas
by Gerardo Diego, translated by Francisco Aragón
Shearsman Books, 2026
https://www.shearsman.com/store/Gerardo-Diego-Handbook-of-Foams-p726762528
Gerardo Diego (1896-1987) was a member of Spain’s noted “generation of ’27.” In 1979, he was awarded the Cervantes Prize. A pioneering avant-garde poet and co-founder of the Ultraist movement, Manual de espumas (1925) was his breakthrough work in his creationist mode.
A reception and book signing will follow the reading.
Reading 7 pm
Book signing and reception 8 pm
Discounted parking (free for members with membership card) after 6 pm.
This project is supported in part by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
