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The Department of Creative Writing held a bilingual poetry reading Tuesday night with Cuban poet Victor Rodríguez Núñez and award-winning translator Katherine Hedeen.
Núñez is also a journalist, literary critic and scholar who has published up to 40 poetry books throughout the Americas especially Latin America, Asia and Europe. He was most recently awarded the Loewe Foundation International Poetry Prize, a prestigious award in Spain.
Hedeen has translated several of Núñez’s books. Her work for translating “Tasks” by Núñez was recently shortlisted for the National Translation Award (what country, what organization?). Both are professors of Spanish at Kenyon College in Ohio.
Núñez and Hedeen read a few poems from Nunez’s books including “Tasks” and his most recent book “Night Badly Written: Poems 2000-2015.”
Núñez’s experiences of traveling to Cuba is reflected in his work.
Hedeen said she believes Núñez’s poems are very relevant to the UTEP community and the borderland in general.
“In (Núñez’s) poems, he wanted to reject the idea of differentiation as an identity. I think in (Núñez’s) poetry, there is a search for identification with others,” Hedeen said.
Hedeen said she believes that Núñez’s work is “edgeless,” and proposes ideas about breaking down barriers and “walls.”
“We as poets and as authors have an idea of what we write, but it’s irrelevant. What’s relevant is what the reader thinks,” Núñez said.
Diana Gerardo, a junior creative writing major, said that she felt the event was a success.
“I really enjoyed the reading,” she said. “I even wrote down some of the lines (Núñez and Hedeen) read.”
The event also had a book signing as well as a meet and greet after the reading.
Hedeen will be having a discussion at 10:30 a.m. on the ninth floor of the Education Building on Wednesday, Oct. 19.
