Bio-bibliographical Information about Confirmed Poets to
22nd Internacional Poetry Festival of Medellin

AFRICA

KEORAPETSE KGOSITSILE  was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1938. He is a poet and political activist, and was an influential member of the African National Congress in the 1960s and 1970s. He lived in exile in the United States from 1962 until 1975, the peak of his literary career. Kgositsile made extensive study of African-American literature and culture, becoming particularly interested in jazz. During the 1970s he was a central figure among African-American poets, encouraging interest in Africa as well as the practice of poetry as a performance art; Kgositsile was known for his readings in New York City jazz clubs. He was one of the first to bridge the gap between African poetry and Black poetry in the United States, and thus one of the first and most significant poets in the Pan-African movement. He has published the poetry books: Spirits Unchained, 1969; For Melba, 1970; My Name is Afrika, 1971; Places and Bloodstains: Notes for Ipeleng, 1975; The Present is a Dangerous Place to Live, 1993; When the Clouds Clear, 1990; To the Bitter End, 1995; If I Could Sing: Selected Poems, 2002; This Way I Salute You, 2004.

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RACHID BOUDJEDRA  was born in Algeria in 1941. He is a poet, novelist and essayist. He studied in Tunis from 1951 to 1958, joined the Liberation Army in 1959, and acted as an FLN representative in Madrid from 1960 to 1962. After graduating in philosophy at the Sorbonne in 1965, he wrote a master's thesis on Céline. After a short stay in France, where he married, he moved to Morocco and taught in a lycée at Rabat. The publication of his first novel, La Répudiation (1969), established him as one of the most subversive writers of post-colonial Algeria. His Topographieidéale pour une aggression caractérisée (1975), however, diminished the impact of his first novel as well as modifying the favorable comment provoked by L'Insolation (1970); critics pointed out his tendency to exaggeratedly narcissistic language. Topographie, like Le Vainqueur de coupe (1981), fabricates a strange world of neurotic characters, whose obsession with female sexual troubles appears arbitrary. Discourssur les femmes dansl'œuvre de Rachid Boudjedra (1982) suggests something of his personal obsession with women, which could in a sense explain the narrowness of his themes. His other pre-occupation is his conversion from writing in French to Arabic. Le Démantèlement (1982), which he has declared to be a translation of Ettafakouk, the Arabic version, is in fact in the line of his French works, and the reader may wonder whether it was not written in French first, and suspect that Boudjedra is trying to profit from the national debate in Algeria on language and religion. (Abdelhamid Zoubir).

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JOYCE ASHUNTANTANG Dr. Joyce Ashuntantang, actress, screen writer, film producer and poet, is a major force in contemporary Anglophone Cameroonian culture. She earned a B.A in English from the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon, a Masters in Librarianship from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, U.K., and a PhD in English from the City University of New York, Graduate Center. Her published works include A Basket of Flaming Ashes (Poetry), Their Champagne Party Will End: Poems in honor of Bate Besong which she co-edited with Dibussi Tande., Landscaping Postcoloniality: the Dissemination of Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Her forthcoming collection of poetry, Wings of Words is highly anticipated. Ashuntantang has been described by other poets as “an extraordinary weaver of words” who “weaves words into a beautifully strong fabric that caresses and soothes, appealing to /invoking all the senses.” Her acute cinematic sense, keen eye and sharp ear allow her to render vividly the colors, scents, sounds and the flow of life not only of her native Cameroon but also her adopted homelands. She is the CEO/founder of EduART INC, a non-profit organization created to promote art as a medium for social change. Ashuntantang is currently professor of English and African Literature at the University of Hartford, Connecticut. She blogs her world at: www.joyceash.com.

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CHRIS ABANI was born in Nigeria in 1966 and published his first novel at sixteen. He has been imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death for his literary activities. After fleeing Nigeria he continued to write, and is the author of eight books of poetry and fiction. He teaches at UC Riverside and Antioch University, Los Angeles. Chris Abani's prose includes Song For Night (Akashic, 2007), The Virgin of Flames (Penguin, 2007), Becoming Abigail (Akashic, 2006), Grace Land (FSG, 2004), and Masters of the Board (Delta, 1985). Among his poetry collections are: Sanctificum, 2010; Hands Washing Water, 2006; Dog Woman, 2004; Daphne's Lot, 2003 and Kalakuta Republic, 2001.He is a Professor at the University of California, Riverside and the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award & the PEN Hemingway Book Prize. 

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DIDIER AWADI  was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1969. He is undoubtedly one of the most prominent artists to have emerged from Africa’s Francophone rap scene.Bitten by the hip-hop bug in his early teens, Awadi launched a career as a rapper and DJ in the mid-80s and soon began to make a name for himself on the burgeoning local scene with his first group, Syndicate.Fascinated by the American rap scene, Awadi partnered with Amadou Barry (aka Doug E Tee), to form Positive Black Soul, a duo whose sound borrowed from western aesthetic, yet was deeply infused with the artists’ cultural roots and African identity. Their music became widespread in Senegal and their fame spread further afield through live performances, tours and albums.In his debut solo album, Parole D’Honneur (Word of Honor), Awadi shows his intelligent sense of Panafricanism, tackling many crucial themes such as debt, a dilapidated heritage and political tensions. In 2004, Awadi released his second album Un Autre Monde Est Possible (Another World is Possible). In 2006, he released the album Sunugaal, then in 2010 he released Presidents D’Afrique (Presidents of Africa), a multimedia project that celebrates the history of Africa and the independences to date through using the biggest speeches of the founding fathers of Black Consciousness such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Kwame Nkruma, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, among others. Not only a rapper and producer, but also a film director, Awadi released his film Le Point de vue du lion in 2011. Presented at the renowned Cannes International Film Festival in May 2011, the film spotlights key, eminent African figures like President Abou Diouf, Aminata Traore, Cheikh Amidou Kane and numerous others.Still conscious and militant, Awadi is preparing a new movie project and album.

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SABA KIDANE  was born in Eritrea in 1978. Poet, performer and journalist as well as presenter and coordinator of broadcasts on Eritrean television and radio, she also writes for newspapers. Her provocative poem “Go Crazy Over Me” resonates with the audacious and erotic poems of Mririda, the Berber courtesan poet from Morocco. Her work has been included in Charles Cantalupo and Ghirmai Negash’s anthology Who Needs a Story? Contemporary Eritrean Poetry in Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic (2005), as well as in Bending the bow: an anthology of African Love Poetry. She writes about the war in which she fought and also about more every day, domestic issues.

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TIBASS KAZEMATIK KANGU was born in Zaire (nowadays Democratic Republic of the Congo) on November the 5th 1980. Composer, singer, songwriter, guitar and bass player;he uses to perform with the great Senegalese poet and rap-musician Didier Awadi. His first solo record, Green Light, has a melancholic voice and poetic lyrics about love for singing and, particularly, for poor children.

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DAVID WA MAAHLAMELA was born the 24th February 1984. He hails from Mankweng in Polokwane, Limpopo. David studied both Electrical and Mechanical Engineering and has worked as a fitter and turner artisan at the De Beers Consolidated Mines and resigned on his seventh year after organizing a protest march. He is currently with Anglo Platinum in Rustenburg.
With poetry book titles ‘Moswarataukamariri’, ‘Mphogodiba’, ‘A Poem to my Poems’ and ‘Mopedi o Maratong’ under his name, Maahlamela has also written the novel ‘Sejamoledi’ and the play ‘O JelwekeAretse’. His novel is the 2011 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature finalist. He has also compiled and edited a Sepedi poetry anthology entitled ‘Tša Borala’ and six children’s books.
Maahlamela is the recipient of the Herifest Prize for poetry, the Musina Mayoral Excellence Award for Arts development, and the 2010/2011 PanSALB Multilingualism Award. He has featured in the popular SABC 2 soapie, Muvhango, SABC 1 series of 55 South African poets, Voice of Africa and on SABC News International’s Youth Expression and Africa in Literature.
Maahlamela is the founder of Lesedi Theatre Production, Shanduka Poetry Group and Realmen Talk Poetry concept. He has also chaired the Musina Arts Committee and served as the director of an annual arts festival.

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AMÉRICA

NICOLÁS SUESCÚN   was born in Bogotá in 1937. Poet, translator, journalist and bookseller, advanced secondary studies in Virginia; then he took courses of humanities, history and literature in the University of Columbia and, later on, in the school of High studies of Paris; at his return to Bogotá he was appointed professor of English at the National University; He worked at the Buchholz bookstore whose magazine Echo he directed during several years; in 1976 he exposed a collection of his collages in the University of Berlin and in the Gallery Belarca; then he founded the Extemporánea Bookstore, he was diagramador of the Magazine Nueva Frontera, Chief of the editorial staff in Cromos Magazine, he prepared international reports for the TV news program Noticias Uno, and author of countless bibliographical notes in different national and international publications . Translator of Rimbaud, Flaubert, Somerset Maughan, Ambrose Pierce, W.B. Yeats, Christopher Isherwood and Stephen Crane. Published Books: El retorno a casa, 1971; El último escalón, 1974; El extraño y otros cuentos, 1980; La vida es...; Los Cuadernos de N, 1994; y Oniromanía, 1996.

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JACOBO RAUSKIN was born in Villarrica, Paraguay, in 1941. He begin to publish since the 60’s and to up now he has published more than twenty books of poems including “The night journey” (La noche del viaje), 1988, The Republic Award in 1989, and “The Wandering Song” (La canción andariega), 1991, Reader Award. His poems have appeared in various Paraguayan and foreign journals and anthologies. He has received numerous awards among the most important the National Literature Prize, 2007, in Paraguay, and the order of People’s Power Award in Venezuela, 2010. He is a member of the Paraguayan Academy of Spanish Language and member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He has taught literature at the Catholic University of Asuncion and he directs the Municipal Library Augusto Roa Bastos in that city. Some of his published works are: “Bonfire of walkers roots” (Fogata y dormidero de caminantes); “The violin street over there” (La calle del violín allá lejos); “Pitogué”, “The path of the birds” (La ruta de los pájaros); “The street artist” (El dibujante callejero), among others.

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JOHN ROBERT LEE (b. 1948, Saint Lucia, West Indies). He graduated from the University of the West Indies with a First Class Degree. He also studied a number of post-graduate courses in Librarianship. In the mid-seventies he taught English Literature and Language at St. Mary’s College. He later worked with Radio St. Lucia as an announcer and producer. He is a St. Lucian writer who has published several collections of poetry. His short stories and poems can be found in many journals and international anthologies. These include Facing the sea (1986), The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse (1986), The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories (1990), The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry (1992) and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse (2005).He has been a long-time regular contributor to local newspapers in which his articles, reviews and columns have appeared. For many years he was very involved in theatre as an actor and director. He directed his own New Day Theatre Workshop in the mid- seventies. He has conducted drama workshops at home and throughout the Caribbean. He has also worked in radio and television as producer and presenter. He continues to present radio and television interviews, focusing on persons – local, regional and international – involved in the arts and culture.He is a professional librarian, and worked with the Castries Central Library (1979-1986) and the Hunter J. Francois Library of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (1986- 1997.) From 1990-1991 he was attached to the Library of the Bunker Hill Community College in Boston as a Fulbright/Laspau scholar.At the Central Library he worked in various sections including the Reference Section. He also acted as Librarian. He was instrumental in developing the Castries Library in the eighties as a vibrant cultural centre, organising lectures and poetry readings. He is presently Information Manager of the Folk Research Centre. He holds the National Award of the St. Lucia Medal of Merit (Gold) for his contribution to the development of Saint Lucian arts and culture.Mr. Lee is very involved in the Christian faith as a Bible teacher, preacher, writer and broadcaster. This dates from 1978. His programme The Christian Mind is heard on several Caribbean radio stations. He is one of four presiding elders of the Calvary Baptist Church, Massade, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.John Robert Lee’s latest publication is elemental: new and selected poems published by the Peepal Tree Press in Leeds, the United Kingdom, in 2008. In 2007 he published Canticles, a collection of poems illustrated with the author’s photographs. Other publications include Artefacts (2000), Saint Lucian (1988) and Vocation (1975). In 1993, at the launching of a poetry collection by Lee entitled Translations, Nobel laureate Derek Walcott said of his younger contemporary, “Robert Lee has been a scrupulous poet; that’s the biggest virtue he has, and it’s not a common virtue in poets, to be scrupulous and modest in the best sense, not to over-extend the range of the truth of his emotions, not to go for the grandiose. He is a Christian poet obviously. You don’t get in the poetry anything that is, in sense, preachy or self-advertising in terms of its morality. He is a fine poet.”

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MALACHI SMITH was born in Westmoreland, and grew up in Clarendon, St. Elizabeth and St. Catherine, staying with various family members. The son of a preacher, Malachi began writing poetry at the age of eight, and recorded his first poem Kimbo to Kimbo in 1979. His other CDs are Blacker the Berry - The Sweeter The Cherry, Throw Two Punch, Middle Passage and Luv Dub Fever. Malachi is currently working on his new CD project Hail to Jamaica. This collection will feature most of his award winning poems about Jamaica. Malachi won the 2009 most outstanding writer award for the Jamaica Development Commission's Creative Writing Competition.

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MARTHA CANFIELD nació en Montevideo, Uruguay, en 1949. Nacionalizada italiana, es poeta, traductora y ensayista. Egresada del Instituto Caro y Cuervo y Doctora en Filosofía y Letras de la Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá. Libros de poesía publicados en español: Anunciaciones, 1977; Mar/Mare, 1989, El viaje de Orfeo, 1990; Caza de altura, 1994; y en italiano: Nero cuoredell’alba, 1998 y Capriccio di un colore, 2004. También ha publicado, entre otros, los libros ensayísticos: La provincia inmutable. Estudios sobre la poesía de Ramón López Velarde, 1981; El patriarca de García Márquez, arquetipo literario del dictador latinoamericano, 1984; Configuración del arquetipo, ensayos de literatura hispanoamericana, 1988 y El diálogo infinito: una conversación con Jorge Eduardo Eielson, 1995. En italiano ha preparado la edición (con traducción y crítica) de la novela de VladyKociancich, Últimos días de William Shakespeare, 1985; y varias antologías poéticas: Idea Vilariño, La sudicia luce del giorno, 1989; Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Poesía scritta, 1993; Álvaro Mutis, Gli elemento del disastro, 1997; y Mario Benedetti, Inventario, 2001. Desde 1996 está vinculada a la Universidad de Florencia preside la Fundación Jorge Eielson.

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ATALA URIANA was born in Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela in 1950.  Poet and essayist, she belongs to the Wayuu nation. She is president of MOPIVE (Movement of Indigenous Peoples of Venezuela). Bachelor of Arts from the University of Zulia. Master on Literature of the same University in 1996. And currently pursuing a Doctorate in Human Sciences also at University of Zulia. She has published: Tanuiki (Poems), Wayunkeera (Story), Short-fiction of Zulia (Anthology), Women and Her word (essay), Anthology of Female Poetry: Where the mouth is you looking for you. Gabriel Ferrer and Yolanda Rodriguez in their book Wayuu Ethnoliterature state in their study on the work of Atala Urian: "The ancestor is the symbol of identity, tradition that keeps alive the culture, so this should be its reaffirmation and prolongation."    

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CARLOS BEDOYA was born in Medellin in 1951. He graduated from the Philosophy Faculty at the Universidad PontificiaBolivariana, poet, essayist, translator and music programmer (jazz and rock, among other genres). His works include: Little Queen of Spades, 1985, Vertigo's Eve, 2004, Travels in the Tightrope, 2006. In 2002 it was published in London his translation of The Sculpture by the indian poet AminurRahman. Several of his works have appeared in anthologies made within and outside Colombia. About his poetic work he has noted in the preface to Vertigo's Eve, the following: "I do not know the reasons why I write, which is why I find it difficult, at least somewhat, to speak of representationssubmerged by an adventure of a thousand blades, assumed as an almost fullyunconscious way. I seem to live waiting for the unexpected;under a state of alert. The ghosts of things do amaze me, haunts me. If I had to signal a desire in me, let alone a will to write, it would be to establish a miracle that all entails, and make it visible, audible,through sprouted images from the inland sea like volatile fish."

Lo sagrado es el poema, el fuego divino es robado por el poeta. Lo divino es aquello inhumano, que está por encima del hombre, es lo que no muere. Lo sagrado abre el tiempo de lo eterno, lo supra histórico, un tiempo que no transcurre. Acontece en este camino la aparición de lo divino, lo enigmático, lo musical. Al dejar subyacer, al dejar estar presentes a las cosas nos abrimos al problema de lo Otro, campo de la convención significante donde (entre líneas) ello adviene a nosotros. Es decir que lo sagrado es el lenguaje mítico, un área de luces oscuras donde las hogueras se elevan sobre los troncos de los árboles.”

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JUAN HERNÁNDEZ RAMÍREZ  was born in Colatlán, Ixhuatlán Madero, Veracruz, on May 6, 1951. He is one of the most renowned poets of the Nahuatl Nation, translator and teacher; he has a bachelor degree on Secondary Education in Spanish Language and Literature at the Autonomous University of Tlaxcala and a Diploma in Creative Writing from the University of Veracruz. He has published books of poetry: AuatlIuanSitlalimej, Oak trees and Stars, 2000, Eternity of Leaves, 2006; Seven Flower, Nezahualcóyotl Prize for Literature in Indian Languages, 2006, and The Language of Birds, 2008. On his works he has recovered disusedNahuatl words and its classical grammar, damaged by time. "The loss of cultural identity also causes a loss of language, due to the lack of attention suffered by indigenous peoples. It seems that economic policies are aimed at big business and forget theindigenous peoples, especially the most marginalized", he says. He has been awarded with the Nezahualcoyotl Prizefor Literature in Indigenous Languages in 2006 and the Continental Prize "Sing of America" for Literature in Indigenous Languages in 2008; with the poems book:Tlatlatoktetl (Stone-in-fire).

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JANE KING  was born in 1952 at Castries in Saint Lucia. Among the most important who's who in the field of Saint Lucia literature, Jane King is also well known in the field of theater. She is the founder of St Lucia's Lighthouse Theater Company. She earned a scholarship to study at the University of Edinberg and later she started teaching at the Sir Arther Lewis Community College in Castries. An intrinsic insinuations into the inflictions made on the basis color and race, the works of Jane King are a gateway to the world of wry wit and satire. Jane King Works Jane King is known for her two important anthologies of poetry, which are:Into the Center, published in the year 1993; The Fellow Traveller, published in the year 1994.Jane King won the Commonwealth writers Prize and the James Rodway Memorial prize for her later collection of poetry. Apart from wry wit and satire, her poems usually address the dilemma of a light-skinned narrator in a race-conscious society in the Caribbeans. They also harp on the importance of the creative imagination of the Caribbean societies. The contribution of Jane King in the field of Caribbean literature and theater is indomitable. A close introspection into the life and the society of the country is what makes her work a guide to the Saint Lucia history.

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DIDA AGUIRRE has been born in Tayacaja, Huancavelica, Perú, in 1953. She belongs to the Quechua nation. With doctoral studies in Education Sciences, she's a college professor at the University Daniel Alcides Carrión of Cerro de Pasco. She has published in some magazines: Canto de los Colores (Color's Signing) and Nostalgias Andinas (Andean Nostalgias) of Mexico; Zumo sumo (High juice) of Colombia; Killka de Tacna, Carrión of Cerro de Pasco; Lluvia de Lima (Lima's Rain), among others and his poems have been included in anthologies such as the XXth Century Peruvian Poetry, Tome II, by Ricardo González Vigil; 1999. Peruvian Women Poets by Ricardo González Vigil, 2010. She has published  these books in Quechua and translated into Spanish: Arcilla (Clay), 1989; Jarawi (Poem), 1999. Book awarded with the first prize in the Second Quechua Language Poetry Contest organized by the National University Federico Villarreal, Lima. Qaparicuy (Call for help) is another of her poetry books.

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KARENNE WOOD   is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation and serves on the Monacan Tribal Council. She is Director of the Virginia Indian Heritage Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is currently a PhD candidate in anthropology at the University of Virginia, working to reclaim indigenous languages and revitalize cultural practices. She was previously the Repatriation Director for the Association on American Indian Affairs, coordinating the return of sacred objects to Native communities. She has also worked at the National Museum of the American Indian as a researcher, and she directed a tribal history project with the Monacan Nation for six years. Wood held a gubernatorial appointment as Chair of the Virginia Council on Indians for four years, and she has served on the National Congress of American Indians’ Repatriation Commission. Wood’s poems have appeared in such journals as Iris, Orion and Shenandoah. She was a finalist for both the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and the Stadler Poetry Fellowship. Her first book of poetry, Markings on Earth, won the North American Native Authors First Book Award and was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2001. It was a finalist for the Balcones Prize. In 2002 she was selected as Writer of the Year in Poetry by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers, and she has been a featured Native poet in Indian Country Today. She recently edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, led the “Beyond Jamestown” Teachers’ Institute, and curated the “Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present” exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. She holds an MFA in poetry from George Mason University.

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JORGE TORRES MEDINA was born in 1956 in Chiquinquirá, Colombia. He's poet and veterinarian. Founding member of the magazine Vericuetos-Chéminsscabreux in 1990; and director of the latin-american version of that magazine since 1992. He lives in Paris. His poetry books are: Instantes y profanaciones (Instants and Profanations); Exilios varios (Several Exiles); Memoria del ocio (Leisure Memory); La ciudad sumergida (Submerged City); Umbral de errancia (Wandering Doorway) this one published as a bililngual edition in french and spanish by Éditions de L'oreille du loup, Paris. Correspondent for the magazine Con-fabulación (Confabulation) in France, he has won a scolarship for poetic creation with a project of a book of poetry on the subject of Ecology and Catastrophe. The Foreign Literature commission has celebrated his "decanted proximity to the poetic word and his expressive rigour."

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PEDRO ARTURO ESTRADA Z.  Born in Girardota (Antioquia) in 1956. He's poet, short-story writer and essayist. He has published: Poemas en blanco y negro (Poems in Black and White), 1994; Fatum, 2000; Oscura edad y otros poemas (Dark age and other poems), 2006. In trance of being published there are: Poemas de Otra/parte (Poems of Other/Part) and Des/historias (Un/histories). His writings has been included in several anthologies both national and outside Colombia. He won the Ciro Mendía National Prize for Poetry in 2004 and the Sueños de Luciano Pulgar Prize in 2006. He has worked as literary workshop coordinator with children, yuong people and adults in the late years. He was member of the Porfirio Barba-Jacob poetry House in Envigado, Antioquia, until 2005. About his poetry, José Manuel Arango has written: "Is his voice a voice without stridency, whithout postures, but now whitout knowledge and maturity. His works do show a certain hopeless vision of the world whithout falling down to the easy complaint; rather, they stand without illusionism in the sobriety of a word that accounts for its circumstances without exaggerations nor attenuations. There is, in this poet, a natural respect for the language in which, however, he explores with decision, from a very personal perspective, the ever essential themes: time, death, existential emptiness, love and even the fear; the crisis in which we are moving today..."

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MARÍA TERESA PANCHILLO was born in the Mapuche community of Kuyvmko (Sandy water), Chile, on february the 7th, 1958. She actually resides in a Traiguén community in Nagche territories. Her poetry is focused on the biographic and political space of the author and keeps believing in the words as catalizers and transformers of social realities of the actual contingencies of reality associated with political and ecological problems and with the recovery and reivindication of the Mapuche culture. Her poems has been included in several publications and also in anthologies such as: Hidden Singing: Anthology of Indigenous Latin-American Poetry, 2008; Weaving in Memory (7 Mapuche Poets), 2006 KallfvMapu (Blue Earth), Anthology of Contemporary Mapuche Poetry and Kümedungun / Kümewirin, Poetic Anthology of Mapuche Women (XX -XXI Century), 2010. 

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GONZALO FRAGUI was born in Mucutuy, Mérida, Venezuela, in 1960. He's poet, journalist, editor and humorist. He has a Master degree in Philosophy by the Univerty of Los Andes where he studies now for a PhD. He's founding member of the literary group Mucuglifo as well as of the Publishing house with the same name. He's actually editor in chief for the "Comarca" magazine. He has won the III Literature Biennial Juan Beroes (Táchira). He has published the books of poetry: De otras advertencias (From Other Warnings), 1989; El poeta que escribía en menguante (The Poet Who Wrote on the Wanning Moon), 1990; De poetas y otras emergencias (Of Poets and Another Emergencies), 1991; La hora de Job (Job's hour), 1995; Viaje a Penelope (Journey to Penelope), 1998; Dos minutos y medios (Two Minutes and Halves), 2002 and Obra poética (Poetic Works), 2004.

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RITA MESTOKOSHO   was born in Ekuanitshit, which means, "Take care of the place where you are." She wrote her first verses of poetry when she was only 16. Since then, this young Innu from Mingan has used writing to speak of her life, her values and her people. An intimist poet of great sensibility, Rita Mestokosho writes in French and is one of few Aboriginal poets in Quebec to have published. Focusing on oral poetry, she has only published one book, Eshi Uapataman Nukum (which means "How I see life, Grandmother") at Éditions Piekuakami (1995). She participated in Solstice Rouge - Voix de femmes during the 9th edition of the Montreal’s Aboriginal Arts Festival, Présence autochtone (1999) and in Nous sommes d’Amériques, presented at the Lion d’Or as part of the Festival international de littérature (1999). She has done extensive research in the field of education and was an Innu-language teacher. An activist, she is often invited to participate in meetings and give conferences in Canada and around the world (Italy, the Amazon, Venezuela, New Mexico).

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MAURICIO CONTRERAS   was born in Bogotá in 1960. He's poet, essayist, translator, researcher, teacher and editor. For years he was publishing director for the Magisterio Editing Cooperative. Author of the books: Geografías (Geographies), 1988; En la raíz del grito (In the root of the scream), 1995; De la incesantepartida (On the lasting departure), 2003; La heridaintacta (The intact wound), 2005; Desiertodelirio (Deserted delusion), 2007; and the anthology Devastación y Memoria (Devastation and Memory), edited by Colombia National University. He has won the IDCT National Poetry Prize in 2005. "An old legend refers events on the life of a dreaming men tribe, of somnambular words that nourish the oblivion with their songs. With obsidian talismans they carve the night and hence the lightning grows. // Coming back, with their head under the arm, they deepen their mutilated hands in the night wound and make tremble, restless, the matter of the dreams. Then, the whole tribe dances around an augur that grows as a fire of hallucinated eyes and hence the world renews itself in the voices of the women ordering the chaos under the stars. // Poetry always returns to give us back the dance of that peoples of somnambular words. That dance around the fire of hallucinated eyes, the words of the mystery as burning grains of the offer that does not fulfill the storms."

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RODNEY SAINT-ÉLOI   was born in Cavaillon, south of Haiti, in 1963. He lives in Canada since 2001. In 1991, he founded in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, the publishing house Mémoire and, in 2003, in Montreal, the publishing house Mémoir d'Encrier (Ink's Memory), that has published one hounded titles of Caribbean, African and Indic Ocean authors. He writes poetry since thirteen years old and has published then books of poetry and essays on literature and painting. Some of his works have been translated into English and Spanish. The body of his works constitutes a slow trip by the cities, the rivers and the faces. Poetic works include: Graffitis pour l'aurore (Graffiti for the Dawn), 1989; Voyelles adultes (Grown-up Vowels), 1994; Pierres anonymes (Anonymous Stones), 1994; Cantique d'Emma (Emma's Canticle), 1997; J'avais une ville d'eau de terre et d'arcs-en-cielheureux (I have a city of ground of water and of rainbows happy), 1999; J'ais un arbredans ma pirogue (I have a tree in my canoe), 2004; Récitatif au pays des ombres (Recitative at the country of shadows), 2011. In his book, "Haiti, Kenbe la..." he tolds the history of the earthquake on January the 12th, 2010 and analyzes it or, at least, its consequences, in parallel with the structural problems of Haiti that the author names as the more global earthquake that is happening to the Haitian society and remembers the premonitory knowledge of his grand mother: "History of this country is a series of earthquakes. Natural earthquakes. Human earthquakes".

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FERNANDO GARCÍA CUÉNCAR was born in Bello, Antioquia, in 1961. He's poet and short-story writer. Philosopher of the University of Antioquia. Literature and Philosophy teacher at several schools in the city. He teaches also Social Sciences and Humanities at the Politecnical Institute Jaime Isaza Cadavid and works as reading promotor in the Aburrá Valley municipalities as well as Literature professor at the Antioquia Technological Institute. His poems has been included in magazines such as Prometeo, Acéfala of the National University of Medellín; Imago in Copacabana, Antioquia; On the El Colombiano and other colombian newspapers. He achieved the second place in the Jorge Robledo Ortiz Third Poetry Contest in 1993 and an Honour mention in the V Ciro Mendía National Contest of Poetry. Among his works, there are the books: Animangel (Poems); Sinsonte (Northern Mockingbird); Los crespos de mi mamá (My mom's curls); Las ardillas de Teresa (Teresa's Squirrells); El pan celeste (Celestial Bread); El ángel del Tío Samuel - Cuentos (Uncle Samuel's Angel - Short Stories).

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GONZALO MÁRQUEZ CRISTO born in Bogotá in 1963. He has publishedtwoeditions of thebook of poetry Apocalipsis de la rosa, (Ediciones Quimera del Oro, 1989, Hojas Sueltas, 1990), the novel Ritual de títeres (Tiempos Modernos, 1992), thebook of short stories El tempestario and otros relatos (Común Presencia Editores, 1998), La palabra liberada (Coleccion Los Conjurados, 2001), Oscuro nacimiento (Colección Los Conjurados, 2005) and thebook Grandes entrevistas de Común Presencia (2010). In 1989, he participated in the founding of the cultural magazine ComúnPresencia, and he currently serves as director. In 1999, he directed the cultural television program Letra Viva. His work has received praise by important writers, such as E.M. Cioran, Roberto Juarroz, Olga Orozco, Alfredo Silva Estrada, Roger Munier, Claude Fell, José Angel Valente, Eugenio Montejo, Jorge Rodríguez Padrón, FernandVerhesen y António Ramos Rosa, among others. Several of his poems and short stories have been translated to Portuguese, Italian, Russian, English and French.

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CARLOS FRAMB was born in Sonsón, Antioquia, Colombia in 1964. Poet and essayist. His poetic works ask for the misteries of the cosmos, science, life, love and death. His essays do think about the art permanence in men's history. He has been renowned by the refination of his expression, the deepen of his images and because of the beauty and throughness of his descriptions. He has been librarian and teacher as well as literary workshop coordinator. Works: Antinoo (Poems, 1994); Un día en el paraíso (A Day in paradise, Prose-poems, 1997, 2002); Del otro lado del jardín (From the other side of the garden, Fiction, 2009); Una noche en la vía láctea (A night at the MIlky Way. Poems compilation, 2010). His essays and poems has been included in several anthologies and publications inside and outside Colombia.

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HUGO JAMIOY JUAGIBIOY  is a poet, cultural and oral literature proponent, and Indigenous human rights activist from the Kamsá People of Putumayo, Colombia. He has performed as a crowd favorite invitational featured poet in festivals throughout Latin America, has read in Italy, Spain, and the United States. His poetry is heavily demonstrative of Indigenous thought and philosophy, its relevance to humanity is well-received and testifies to the right for Indigenous permanence and sustainability in a time where humanity has injured the planet in its taking of so many indigenous lives/people from the landscape of origin they serve to protect. His people have bore the burden of the unwanted in a genocidal war upon them throughout his life.

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JOSE JAVIER SÁNCHEZ   was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1970. Poet, teacher and reading promotor. Founder of the Network of Writers from Venezuela. He coordinated the National Project for Reading Promotion "To read is to comprehend". He has coordinated the events "Towards the World Poetry Festival". His poems has been translated into arab and portuguese. He's taken part in the anthologies: Amanecimos de Bala (We woke of bullet); El corazón de Venezuela (Venezuela's Heart); 70 Poets in solidarity with Iraq, Lebanon and Palestina (2006); World Poetry Festival, 27F and Anthology (Bilingual Arab-Spanish) of young Venezuelan poetry. he has published: Fragmentos para una memoria (Fragments for a Memory), 2007; Una mirada por la décima urbana (A Stare for the Urban Poetry. Anthology), 2008; Hasta que el recuerdo lo permita (Until the memories allow it), 2009; and Código Postal 1010 (Postal Code: 1010), 2010. His poems has been publishd in several colombian, mexican and venezuelan magazines. He now prepares the publication of an Anthology of Women Poets from Caracas. He coordinates the attention to the writer for the Publishing Foundation El Perro y la Rana (The Dog and the Frog).

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MARÍA CLARA SHARUPI JUAcomes from the province of Morona Santiago, Sevilla don Bosco and she's part of the Shuar nation, Ecuador. Since childhood he has worked on agriculture with his parents and brothers and grown in between the Mother Wild (Madre Selva); she has learned all his ancestors knowledge from his father and mother and she uses that knowledge to face the occidental world as she wanders in love and as a daughter of Arutam (God) througout life. Director for Family and Women for the Naakam Tayu Association od Pastaza (4 years); Ans spokeswoman for the ECORAE (Institute for Eco-Development for the Amazonic Region) in representation of the indigenous nations of the amazonic region (2 years). Co-writer of the book Amanece en nuestras vidas (It dawns in our lives). Translator and presenter for relevant works on radio and television in his mother-tongue Shuar Chicham and Spanish. His book of poems, Tarimiat is in trance of publication in three languages: Shuar Chicham, Spanish and English.

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SURLAY FARLAY  was born in Medellín on november the 24th, 1971. He has published the book of poems: A la espera de Nayan (Waiting for Nayan), 1991. He was part of the poetry workshop at the Piloto Public Library of Medellín between 1991 and 1998. He's a psichologist from the University of Antioquia. He has worked as reading promotor in several institutions as well as coordinator for poetry workshops. He's member of the editorial commitee for the literary newspaper El Gaviero.

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LUIS EDUARDO RENDÓN   was born in Roque, Antioquia, Colombia, in June 1972. He has published the following poetry books: Arpa a merced de lasmanos invisibles (Harp at the Mercy of Invisible Hands), 1996; La velocidad de laspiedrasesazul (The Speed of Stones is Blue), 1997; Universal Gong Night, 1997; Tras la lobaespectral (After the Spectral She-Wolf), 1998; La Plaza Mercurio (Mercurio Square), 2000; Libro de presagios (Book of Presages), 2011. He has belonged since his early years to the organization of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín, to the Prometeo Art and Poetry Corporation, and to the Editorial Board of Prometeo Magazine. In the festival he works as programming director. For several years he has taught poetry writing stimulation workshops for children, youths and adults from different areas of Medellín; he has co-authored, with Jairo Guzmán, Preludioparaunagimnasia de laspercepciones (Prelude to a Gymnastics of Perception), a book on the development of creative writing. He has participated in poetry events in Macedonia, Austria, Brazil, Nicaragua and Panama, and in several Colombian cities, including Bogotá, Cartagena, Villavicencio, Popayán and Tuluá.

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CARLOS CIRO  was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1974 and has background in Philosophy and Systems Engineering. He has participated in the organization of the International Poetry Festival of Medellín and in the edition of the Prometeo Magazine, particularly, with the translation of poets from languages such as portuguese, french, german, italian and english. He co-founded and editorial crew member of the Philosophy Magazine Euphorion in which some of his translations were also published. He has dedicated several years of his life to the sistematic study and the translation of the works by the portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa that has been partially published on several virtual spaces under the name "Pessoas de Pessoa" since 1996. In 2010 he coordinated the course "To think and to poetize" on the Permanent School of Poetry of Medellín called by Prometeo.

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CATALINA GARCÉS   was born in Medellín in 1980. She studied Spanish and Literature at he University of Antioquia. She has been reading promoter and worked at Medellín's moving libraries in 2004, leading workshops in municipal libraries and some rural areas. Since 2006 she has worked as editor of the Words on the Road program, a cultural project resulting from an alliance between the Comfama compensation fund and Medellín's Metro, publishing selected titles of the universal literary patrimony and that has published forty titles no and has more than 380 thousand books freely circulating. She's now studying Hispanic Philology at the University of Antioquia. Some of her poems are part of the anthology Nueva poesía y narrative hispanoamericana (New Hispano-American Poetry and Fiction), published in Spain in 2009.

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ANGYE GAONA    (Bucaramanga, Colombia, 1980) Colombian poet, member to Prometeo and also to the organizer team of the International Poetry Festival of Medellin during five years. In 2001 she organized the I International Exhibition of Experimental Poetry. She has also cultivated the sculpture and radio broadcasting. She lives in her natal city where she accomplishes activities of promotion of the potencies of poetry.Poems of hers have been included in anthologies, and in printed and digital publications in Colombia and abroad, and recently in an anthology of new voices of Colombian poetry published by the University of Monterrey (Mexico).In 2009, she edits her first book: «Volatile birth» (Illustrated by Natalia Rendón), and also participates in the International Meeting of Present Surrealism «The secret threshold», (Santiago de Chile), the biggest show held of the surrealistic movement in Latin America.In 2010 she carries out the experimental poem «The children of the wind», which is accessible at the web site:  http://www.wix.com/viento/viento. Her work has been translated into French, Catalan, Portuguese and English. In 2011 she is awarded with the Metropolitan Salon of the Arts «Mire».In 2012, if she is not in jail till then, she would participate in the International Exhibition «Surrealism 2012” (Pennsylvania, USA).A Special Bilingual Dossier will be dedicated to her in the next issue of the French poetical magazine «La voix des autres», to be published in March 2012.

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EDWIN RENDÓN   was born in Fredonia, Antioquia, in 1981. He's poet and Literature teacher. Studied Spanish and Literature at the University of Antioquia. He has an specialization in Literature at the Pontifical Bolivarian University. He coordinates the literary gathering of Fredonia. Works: Escupitajo (Spittle), 2000; Sobre un estudio de los árboles (On a studies about the trees), 2005 (This wok won the Isaías Gamboa National Poetry Prize), Manual del perdedor (Looser's manual), 2011 (This work was finalist in the 1st Young Poetry Prize City of Medellín and Metropolitan Area). His works have been published in the Antología de Poesía Joven Colombiana (Anthology of Young Colombian Poetry) by the Verso a Verso Foundation in 2005.

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FADIR DELGADO ACOSTA   was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, in 1982. She started to write poetry since eight years old. She's the author of the poetry books La casa de hierro (Iron house) and El ultimo gesto del pez (Fish's last gesture). Founding member and artistic guide of the Casa de hierro (Iron house) Foundation, from where she promotes cultural spaces for the city and guides the formation of readers and writers through literary workshops and activities aimed for children and young people. She has read her poems in Diverse colombian cities and also in festivals and encounters at Ecuador, Venezuela, Francia and Canada. "Writed creation is a possibility of rescue, and the most urgent to be recued is the human condition which does not means just to make some reasoning, to walk or to talk, but involves a more complex commitment that means not to think on ourselves from the individual but from the collective; for this we must recognize that the other one do exist, that we can start thinking and imagining together. Is in this way that the universe of writing throughout its own tissues tells us about other contexts, reinvents other sceneries for us from a reality that takes distance of that other that shows itself in that media performances that do merchandize tragedy, reducing it all to a vulgar and banal melodrama."

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JAVIER ALVARADO was born in Santiago de Veraguas, Panamá, on August the 28th, 1982. Took his lessons in the Panama School and obtained his licensed title in Spanish Literature and Language from the University of Panamá in 2005. He has been invited to read his poems in Cuba, Chile, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, México, England, Guatemala, El Salvador, Scotland and Uruguay. His poems has been included in several anthologies of hispanoamerican poetry. He won the Gustavo Batista Cedeño National Prize for Young Poetry of Panamá in 2000, 2004 and 2007; the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry in 2004 and the Stella Sierra Poetry Prize in 2007. He was resident poet for the Foundation Cove Park in Scotland, United Kingdom, in 2009. He obtained an Honour Mention from the Literary Prize Casa de las Américas of Cuba in 2010 with his work Carta natal al país de los locos - Poeta en Escocia (Natal Chart fot the Madmen Country - Poet in Scotland). He won the first prize on the X Floral Games Belize-Panama. He won the Rogelio Sinán Centroamerican Prize for Literature, in Poetry, in 2011 with the book Balada sin ovejas para un pastor de huesos (Ballad without sheep for a shepherd of bones). Ruben Darío International Prize for Poetry for his book El mar que me habita (The sea that lives in me). Published works: Tiempos de vida y muerte (Life and death times), 2001; Caminos errabundos y otras ciudades (Wandering paths and other cities), 2002; Poemas para caminar bajo un paraguas (Poems for walking under an umbrella), 2003; Aquí, todo tu cuerpo escrito (Here, all your body written), 2005; No me cubre de edad la primavera (Spring does not cover me with age), 2008; Soy mi desconocido (I'm my own unknown), 2008; Carta natal al país de los locos (Natal chart for the Madmen Country), 2011; Ojos parlantes para las estaciones de ceguera (Speaking eyes for the blindness stations), 2011; Balada sin ovejas para un pastor de huesos (Ballad without sheeps for a shepherd of bones), 2011.

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FLY SO HIGH was born in Apartadó (Antioquia) on September the 5th, 1982. He's an MC, cultural promoter and activist. Since 2007 he integrates with Mauricio Ríos Suárez "Mr. Moore", his musical producer, the Rap Band "Mandrágora Hip-Hop". Founding member of the art collective and discographic label "Mandrágora Records". As a rapper, his lyrics do question our ideas about what we are and what we have arround us; he uses the cotidianity, the streets and hjis life experiences to explore the deepens of the self and stumulate new ways of being, thinking and feeling. That aesthetic proposal is known as Consciousness-Rap. Fly so high is recognized as one of the best Freestyle of the country. Among his works there is "Flow so high" Digital EP, 2011 and "Efiméria", Digital LP, 2011.

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LARRY MEJÍA   "I was born in Tanta Fe (So much faith) de Bogotá, Colombia on May the 29th, 1983. So I can now count 25 years surviving in a country where hope is the first thing lost. I've studied acting in the Molière academy of the Colombian-French Alliance and in the south academy of art Don Eloy. I have worked in television for 15 years in different series and novels, acted in three movies and won the India Catalina prize in 1991 as best child actor; and, in 1992, as best feature actor. In 1997, I won the TV and Novelas Prize. I write poetry and I was finalist at the Isaías Gamboa Young Poetry Prize, I have worked at the San Juan Bautista de La Salle School as a theater teacher and have made poetry readings in schoools, universities, libraries, foundations and other joints in Bogotá, Chía and Silvania. I'm founding member of the Negacionista (Denier) Poetry Group, on which I've made many readings and much more silence. I've given conferences about the Beat Generation in the National University of Colombia, at the Colombia's National Library, at the library network Bibliored. In July, 2008, I was invited to the 7th International Poetry Festival of Valencia, Venezuela. Some of my poetic works have been partially translated into english and arab and have been published in Cairo's newspapers. I have to fiction novels written Hacefrío y estoylejos de casa (It's cold and I'm far from home) and El demoledor de Babel (Babel's demolisher). Nowadays I'm writing my third novel, No estoy aquí (I'm not here). And that's all for now."

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JHONATTAN ARANGO   was born in Medellín in 1984. He studies Philosohy and Photography and is graphic designer and musician; he's researcher in literature, philosophy of art and pedagogy. He's part of the literary workshop RENATA at the University of Antioquia and is member of the El Tunel (The Tunnel) literary center that mades the virtual magazine Antropofagia (Anthropophagy). Universal cultural ambassador for the latin-american union of writers, and member and associate of the Tarija, Bolivia writers union. He has been participant on various poetry encounters both locally and internationally. He has published de poems book Cuando el almadespierta (When the soul wakes up) and has participated in various national and international poetry anthologies.

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ASIA

ESDAULETOV ULUGBEK was born in Kazajistán, in 1954. His father, veteran of the Second World War, was chemistry and biology professor at secondary schools and his mother, linguist and philologist. He graduated as journalist at the State University of Kazajistan in 1977 and as a writer in the Poetry department of the Superior Institute for Literature Maxim Gorky, in Moscow, in 1985. He's member of the Journalism Accademy of Kazajistan; Honorary member of the Arts Accademy (2004) and Emeritus Professor of the Semeiskie University in Auezov. Honorary Member of the National Union of Writers of Kirguistán and member of the International Accademy of Poetry of the Turkic World (2011). Author of the books Қanatқaқty, 1974, Zhұldyzzharyғy, 1977; Altyn Altaydyң Tamyr, 1979; Ұlystyңұlykүnі, 1982; AkKeruen, 1985; Zharatylys, 1989; Zhүrektegіzharylystar, 1995; Zaman-ai, 1999; Kiіzkіtap, 2001; Pima Қara, 2006; Yntyқ zar, 2010, Әbіlhayat, 2011, an anthology of his works in two volumes published in 2006. He's the author or the lyrics for the hymn of the anti-nuclear movement "Zaman-ay" and for other contemporary kazakh songs.

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DUNYA MIKHAIL (born 1965 in Baghdad, Iraq) is an ethnic Assyrian United States-based poet who was born in Iraq. Mikhail worked as Literary Editor for The Baghdad Observer. Facing increasing threats and harassment from the Iraqi authorities for her writings, she fled Iraq in the late 1990s and studied Near Eastern Studies at Wayne State University. In 2001, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. She speaks and writes in Assyrian, Arabic and English. Her works include the poetry collection "The War Works Hard," which won PEN's translation awarded and was named one of the best books of 2005 by the New York Public Library, and genre-bending work "The Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea". Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals as well as anthologies including "World Beat: International Poetry Now" from New Directions, "Flowers of Flame: Unheard Voices of Iraq", and "Iraqi Poetry Today: Modern Poetry in Translation". She currently lives in Michigan where she works as an Arabic resource coordinator for a local school district and university. Among her poetry books, are: The Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea, 1999; The War Works Hard, (translated in 2005 by Elizabeth Winslow), (shortlisted for the 2006 International Griffin Poetry Prize); The Psalms of Absence.

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Mindy Zhang  (aka Ming Di) is a Chinese poet and translator living in America, born and grew up in China, did graduate study in Linguistics at Boston University before moving to California. She has published six poetry collections in Chinese:D Minors Etudes, Chords Breaking, Berlin Story, June Snow, Art of Splitting, and Selected Poems of Ming Di. She has translated many poets from other countries into Chinese and published in China and Taiwan. Her book lengthtranslation includes “The Writer as Migrant” (literary essays) (2010), “Missed Time” (poetry) (2011), “Dancing in Odessa” and “The Book of Things” (to be published soon). As a poet she has been invited to readings in several countries such as Japan, India, Macedonia, Sweden, Romania, Croatia, Germany, as well as China and USA. Co-founder and editor of POETRY EAST WEST, a Chinese-English bilingual magazine, and a musician playing the traditional Chinese instrument Guzheng.

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DOROTHEA ROSA HERLIANY  is a poet from Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia who has written eleven poetry books, and eleven prose book, included children books. Her book Kill the Radio also published in the UK and Santa Rosa awarded the most prestigious award in Indonesia, The Khatulistiwa Literary Award. In 2009 she published schenkmiralles, was die Männernichtbesitzen. dochschenkmirnicht das Himmelreich/ Beri Aku Semua Yang Dibutuhkan Lelaki, Tapi Bukan Surga (bilingual Indonesia-German, multimedia with CD ROOM). She is also literary organizator and had been as a literary publisher for ten years.

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MOOKIE KATIGBAK-LACUESTA  was born in Manila, Philippines. She obtained an MFA from the New School University, NYC. Her first book of poetry, The Proxy Eros, was published in 2008. Her work has won Palanca and Philippines Free Press awards, the top literary honors in the Philippines. She is also the editor of Metro Serye, a chapbook/zine that features new poetry and fiction.

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SUBHRO BANDOPADHYAY  (pseudonym of Subhransu Banerjee) was born in India in 1978. He's licensed in Biology and have a Diploma in Spanish by the Cervantes Institute. He has been finalist in the India National Prize «Sanskriti Awards for literature». In 2008 he receives the 1st Antonio Machado International Fellowship for poetic creation to write La ciudad leopardo (Leopard City). He has published four books of poems, a novel and a Pablo Neruda biography on Bengali language. With Chilean poet Violeta Medina has coordinated and translated the first anthology of actual Bengali poetry in Spanish. He's founder of the poetry magazine Podyocharcha. "We don't find pure light nor shadows on the memory, just an harmony is created and we lick it like the female animal to her calf. I cannot write yet, I cannot strongly say that anything is void without you".

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EUROPA

DACIA MARAINI was born in Italy in November 1936.  She has written numerous plays and novels and founded the theatre companies delPorcospino (Porcupine) and TeatrodellaMaddalena.The daughter of well-known ethnologist FoscoMaraini, Dacia Maraini spent her early childhood in Japan while her father conducted his research. Due to her parents’ anti-fascist views, the family was interred in a concentration camp during the final years of the Second World War. After their return from Japan, she and her family lived in Sicily, in the ancestral home of her mother, painter TopaziaAlliata.  Dacia studied in Palermo, Florence and Rome.Her first novel, La vacanza (The Vacation) was published in 1962, and the second, L’etàdelmalessere (The Age of Discontent) won the International Formentor Prize in 1963 and has been translated into twelve languages. She has subsequently published eight more novels, several investigative studies, and collections of poetry and essays. She lives in Italy.

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DINO SIOTIS was born in 1944 on the island of Tinos, Greece and was educated at Athens University and San Francisco State University. He is a poet, novelist, and book critic and has published twenty books poetry and fiction in Frebch, English and Greek He lives in Athens where he edits (de) kata and Poetix literary magazines. He is the director of the Tinos International Literary Festival and president of Poets Circle.

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GEERT VAN ISTENDAEL Belgian writer (Dutch language), born 29th of March 1947 in Ukkel (Brussels). Sociology and philosophy at the Roman Catholic University of Leuven. Fellow of the Belgian National Scientific Research Foundation (NFWO-FNRS), 1969-1976. Research in urban and rural planning.One year Reading University, Department of Geography.
Co-president (with Marion Hansel) of Kunstenfestival Des Arts in Brussels.
President of Belgian (Dutch speaking) PEN-centre 2007-2010.Now honorary president.
Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Language and Literature.
Member 2007-2009 of the Brussels Poetry Collective. Contributed to the European Constitution in Verse, together with more than 50 poets from all EU-countries.
Doctor honoris causa Open University, the Netherlands.
Visiting Professor Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, winter semester 2010-2011.
Writes poetry, novels, fairy tales, essay. Some of his published books are: De iguanodons van Bernissart (poems, Amsterdam, De Arbeiderspers, 1983); Plattegronden (Maps, poems, Amsterdam, De Arbeiderspers, 1987); Verhalen van het Heggeland (Hedgeland Tales, novel, Amsterdam, Atlas, 1991); Arm Brussel (Poor Brussels, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 1992); Bekentenissen van eenreactionair (Confessions of a reactionary, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 1994); Vlaamse Sprookjes (Flemish Folk Tales, Amsterdam, Atlas, 1995); Het geduld van de dingen (The patience of things, poetry, Amsterdam, Atlas, 1996); Altrapsodie (Rhapsody for contralto, novel, Amsterdam, Atlas, 1997); Veldwerk in Vlaanderen (Fieldwork in Flanders, short stories, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2000); Taalmachine (Language Machine, poems, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2001. Brussels poetry prize 2004); Alleuitbarstingen (All eruptions, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2001); De zwartesteen (Black Rock, novel, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2003); Fatma of de monumentenzorg (Fatma or the preservation of monuments, poetry, Brussels, Culture Ministry, 2004); Mijn Nederland (My Holland, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2005); Berichten, bezweringen (Reports, incantations, poems, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2006); Alfabet van de globalisering (ABC of globalization, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2006); MijnDuitsland (My Germany, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2007); Kerstverhaal (Christmas story, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2008); Gesprekken met mijndode god (Talking with my dead god, novel, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2009); Manneke Pis. Eenbiografietje (MannekePis.A small biography, Amsterdam, Atlas, Antwerpen, Houtekiet, 2010); Socialezekerheid en anderegedichten (Social Security an other poems, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2010); Tot het Nederlandsevolk (To the people of the Netherlands, essay, Amsterdam, Atlas, 2010).
Het Belgisch Labyrint translated into French, Hungarian and Czech. One novel, poems and essays translated into French, German, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian. One long poem (Krabat) into English. Mijn Nederland into Czech. Mijn Duitsland into German.
He translated poetry into Dutch, a.o.: Brecht, Brel, Fried, Ghelderode, Goethe, Heine, Hölderlin, Kahlau, Prévert, Rilke, Yeats.
He translated Brechts Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) into Dutch for the Dutch National Theatre, The Hague.

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ION DEACONESCU was born in Romania, on march the 7th, 1947. His published poetic works include: Apparatus for photographing the soul, 1981; Glass of mist, 1985; The eternity of the instant, 1986; Mask for the voice, 1987; Grammar of chance, 1991; Proof of loneliness, 1993; Rethorics of he Mirror, 1995; Zero Dynamic, 1995; The garden of the desert, 1997; The Wound of the Darkness, 1998; Wings of Light, 2009; Cognelicoterrant, 2010; The Damnation of the Poet, 2011. As Guillevic says, "the poetry by Ion Deaconescu is the search for a way in which to live completely the world and the self; it si, at the same time, the search and the fear for the strangeness. A pretty poetic sensibility a a gift for the image that raises up the daily life to the highness of a dreamed horizon". And Rafael Alberti has said about him: "In his poems it sprouts the transparency of clear water at that misterious hour when, from the bottom it raises the unnamable face of the deep and enigmatic. With the exciting tremor of the nitid and abisal things, I do read the poems by Ion Deaconescu, his poetry do enlarge the boundaries of the truly poetic writing."

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FRANCIS COMBES was born in France in 1953. He has published fifteen books of poetry, including La Fabrique du Bonheur, Cause Commune, Le Carnet Bleu de Chine and La Clef du Monde estdansl'Entrée à Gauche. He has translated several poets into French, including Heine, Brecht, Mayakovsky and Attila Joszef. He has also published two novels and, with his wife Patricia Latour, Conversation avec Henri Lefebvre. He is a founder of the radical publishing cooperative, Le Temps des Cerises, and was for many years responsible for putting poems on the Paris Metro.

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JOSÉ LUIS REINA PALAZÓN was born in Puebla de Cazalla, Sevilla, Spain, in 1941. He's poet and renowned translator. He studied Classical Philology in Sevilla and Salamanca and Modern Philology and Philosophy in Frankfurt. He has been lecture professor of Spanish Language and Literature at the Pedagogics and Economy Faculty of the Fachhochschule in Frankfurt. Seven books of his own poetry has been published including the Exotarium trilogy: Exotaium I: La soledad del día (Solitude of the day); Exotarium II: Cuerpoinseguro (Unsecure body); and Exotarium III: Antes del olvido (Before oblivion). The first two Exotarium are completely translated into French, Italian, Romanian and Macedonian. Some of his poems have appeared in Russian, Italian, Netherlands, German, Israeli, Greek, North and South American magazines. He has participated in many international anthologies. He has translated the works by Georg Trakl and by Paul Celan, including posthumous works. He has translated also remarkable works by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Else Lasker-Schüler, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Gottfried Benn, Nelly Sachs, Heinrich Heine, Herta Müller, Anna Ajmátova, Marina Tsvietáieva, Borís Pasternak, Mallarmé, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob and Arthur Rimbaud among other authors. He has received many prizes for his work like the Spanish Cultural Affairs Ministry Prize for his work on Georg Trakl works, in 1989; and, in 1992, the Austrian Cultural Affairs Ministry Prize for the same work; In 2000 he won the National Prize for the translation of Paul Celan works; in 2001, the Academiaoradea Prize for the Anthology of Anna Ajmátova. In 2003, he received the Anibal Caro, Pescara, Prize for translating Italian poetry. The Struga Poetry Prize in Macedonia, in 2003 and the Goethe Foundation Prize for translation in 2004. In 2007, he received the National Prize for Translation Trajectory in Spain; in 2009. the Rosa de Oro (Golden Rose) Prize of Poetry. He has participated in renowned poetry festivals in Europe, Asia, America and Oceania.

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ANDREAS NEESER was born in 1964, in Switzerland. He studied Literary Criticism and German and English Literature & Language at the Universityof Zurich. Part-time job as a College Teacher from 1990 to 2003. From 2003 bis 2011 Andreas Neeser formed an managedthe House of Literature in Lenzburg/Switzerland. Since 2012 he works as a freelance writer in Suhr/Aarau.Member of the Swiss Writers Union and PEN Switzerland.Juror at the Franz-Tumler-Literaturpreis in Laas (Italy). Main Works: Schattensprünge, Novel, PendoVerlag, Zürich 1995; Treibholz, Poems, PendoVerlag, Zürich 1997 und WolfbachVerlag, Zürich 2004; Schweres Blut, Play, Reithalle Aarau, Regie Heinz Schmid, Uraufführung 2002; Tote Winkel, Stories, Wolfbach Verlag, Zürich 2003; Gras wächstnachinnen, Poems, Wolfbach Verlag, Zürich 2004; Die Sonneisteinnasser Hund, Poetic Miniatures, Wolfbach Verlag, Zürich 2006; Grenzland. Ein Klangbuch, including an Audio-CD, in cooperation with Martin Merker (Violoncello), Wolfbach Verlag, Zürich 2007; No allesgliichwie morn, Stories and Poems in Swiss German, Zytglogge Verlag, Oberhofen b. Thun 2009; Unsicherer Grund, Stories, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2010; Giacomettis Bauch, 18 Postcards, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2010; Luftposcht, Popsongs in Swiss German, Audio-CD, in cooperation with Michel Erismann & Band, Phonag Records, Winterthur 2012; Fliegen, bisesschneit, Novel, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck 2012. Grants and Prizes obtained: 1991, 1992, 1998, 2005, 2006, 2007: Grants Aargauer Kuratorium; 1999: Ingeborg-Bachmann-Wettbewerb: Scholarship for the 3rd Klagenfurter Literaturkurs; 2001: Scholarship Aargauer Kuratorium in Berlin; 2006: Lyrikpreis Meran: Medienpreis RAI Bozen; 2007: Pro Argovia Artist 2007/2008; 2008: Feldkircher Lyrikpreis; 2010: Scholarship Landis &GyrStiftung in Berlin; 2012: Scholarship Kulturministerium Rheinland-Pfalz in Edenkoben; 2012: Scholarship Schriftstellerhaus Stuttgart.

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DOSTENA LAVERGNE was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1972. Graduated from the National School for Ancient Languages and Cultures in Sofia.Pursued university studies in anthropology in Switzerland and France, also obtaining a diploma in International Relations.Lives in France. Her poems have been published in literary reviews in Sofia. She participated in the First Meeting of Balkan Writers and Translators in Alexandroupolis (Greece), held in 1998. Her first collection of verse, I am and Dream, was published in Sofia in 1999. The same year she participated in the international Writing out of Exile symposium "Waves of Three Seas" organized by the IWTC on Rhodes.

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ANDRIY BONDAR was born in Kamianets-Podilsky, Ukraine, in 1974. He studied history and literary theory at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and at the age of twenty-two won the literary contest for young writers organized by the Smoloskyp publishing house. Shortly thereafter he published his first collection of poems, »Vesinniayeres« (1998; t: S pring heresy), followed by »Istyna i med« (2001; t: Truth and honey). Bondar’s journalism has led him to write for the »Gazetapo-ukrainsky« and the »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«. He has also worked as editor of the weekly paper »Dzerkalotyzhnia«, for which he has repeatedly penned award-winning columns.

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SIGBJØRN SKÅDEN (b. 1976) is a Saami writer from Skánik/Skånland in Northern Norway. He has got two master’s degrees in literature, one from the University of York on the Caribbean poet Derek Walcott, and one from the University of Tromsø on the development of Saami poetry in the 20th century. He made his debut as a fiction writer in 2004 with the long epic poem Skuovvadeddjiidgonagas (“The King of Shoemakers”). For this book he was nominated to the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize, the most prestigious literary prize in the Nordic countries. In 2008 he published the conceptual short novel Ihpil: Láhpponmánáidbestejeaddji (“Ihpil: The Savior of Lost Children”) and in 2010 he published his second book of poetry, Prekariáhtalávlla (“A Song for the Prekariat”). He has also written numerous works for stage performances and exhibitions.  Skuovvadeddjiidgonagas (“The King of Shoemakers”, 2004)“The King of Shoemakers” is a long epic poem set between the two world wars in a small Saami village in Northern Norway. The young Saami man Jusup return to his home village after two years in the south of Norway, and his family awaits him eagerly at the docks. But something has changed. Jusup is no longer the same. Slowly the backdrop for Jusup’s story unravels, about the girl that he left in the south haunting him still. Skåden has used the central European myth about the wandering Jew, the shoemaker Joseph who was sentenced to eternal life and eternal rootlessness for striking Christ on the Via Dolorosa, to portray a guilt-ridden Saami man torn between the girl he loves and the love for his people.

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OCEANIA

PHILIP HAMMIAL has had twenty-two collections of poetry published. His sixteenth collection, In the Year of Our Lord Slaughter’s Children, was short-listed for the Kenneth Slessor Prize in 2004, as was his fourteenth collection, Bread, in 2001. His twenty-first collection, Skin Theory, was shortlisted for the ACT Poetry Prize in 2010. He has represented Australia at several international poetry festivals: Poetry Africa 2000, Durban, SA; The Franco-Anglais Festival of Poetry, Paris, 2000; The World Festival of Poets 2000, Tokyo; the Festival International de la Poesie, TroisRivieres, Canada, 2004 and the Micro-Festival, Prague, 2009. In 2006 an anthology of Australian poetry in French that Hammial edited – 25 poetesaustraliens – was published by Ecrits des Forges in Trois Rivieres, Quebec and Le Temps des Cerises in Paris. His poetry has appeared in nineteen Australian poetry anthologies and in journals and newspapers in nine countries. In 2004 Hammial was awarded an Established Writer’s grant by the Literature Board of the Australia Council. He was a resident at the Australia Council studio at the Cité International des Arts in Paris for six months in 2009/2010. He is also a sculptor (thirty solo exhibitions), the director of The Australian Collection of Outsider Art (twenty-six exhibitions in five countries) and the editor of Island Press Co-operative (forty-seven titles published).

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APIRANA TAYLOR was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1955. Apirana is a poet, playwright, novelist, short story writer, story teller, actor, painter, and musician. Many of his poems are frequently studied in New Zealand. Some of his poetry and prose has been translated into several languages. He is of Pākehā and Māori descent with affiliations to Ngāti Porou, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Ngāti Ruanui. He was a prominent member of the Māori theatre cooperative TeOhuWhakaari. Taylor has published three volumes of poetry – Eyes of the Ruru (1979), Soft Leaf Falls of the Moon (1997) and Te Ata Kura; the red-tipped dawn (2004); three short-story collections; a novel, He TangiAroha (1993); and two plays. He was a runner-up for the Pegasus Book Award in 1985, for He Rau Aroha: A Hundred Leaves of Love.Taylor’s first collection of poetry, Eyes of the Ruru, established his powerful voice among Maori writers and his prose, written predominantly in realist modes, firmly established his literary presence.

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Up dated on April 30th, 2012.