Join Francisco Aragón and a constellation of DC-area poets to celebrate Handbook of Foams/Manual de espumas by Gerardo Diego, translated by Francisco Aragón.
Gerardo Diego was arguably the least known of Spain’s “generation of 27,” which included Federico Garcia Lorca.
Written in 1922 when the poet was 26, Handbook of Foams was one of the most important eruptions in the early phase of the 20th century Spanish avant-garde. Aragón’s rendering is the first English translation.
FREE & open to the public, RSVP required below.
About the Readers
Francisco Aragón is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. His books include, After Rubén (2020), Glow of Our Sweat (2010), and Puerta de Sol (2005). Handbook of Foams by Gerardo Diego is his latest book of translations from the Spanish. His poetry has appeared in over twenty anthologies. A native of San Francisco, CA, he directs Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. For more information, visit: franciscoaragon.net
José Ballesteros’s poetry appears in journals and the anthology Al Pie de La Casa Blanca. His book of poetry Lovedust/Polvo enamorado was published in 2014 (Izote Press). He co-edited the anthology Voces de España and is a translator of poetry, including The Word of the Dead by Marcial Molina Richter. From 2014-2025 he was a poetry publisher in the DC-based Zozobra Publishing. He is currently a professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union, 2019 winner of The Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and Haint, winner of the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the 2022 recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council Award and the 2020 Poetry Society of America’s Robert H. Winner Prize. She lives in Maryland with her husband, poet Hayes Davis and their two teens.
Adrian Gaston Garcia (AGG) is a queer Latine storyteller from Chicago, rooted in Washington, D.C. His work spans across poetry, performance, and theater and centers community, softness, and joy as resistance. He has performed widely across DC and beyond, and his work has been published in Latino Book Review and Split This Rock. Adrian co-hosts Los Bookis Podcast and founded Tintas DC, a writing collective uplifting Latine voices and stories across the DMV.
Yvette Neisser is an award-winning poet, Spanish translator, and founder of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network (DC-ALT). Her co-translation of Venezuelan poet Maria Teresa Ogliastri’s From the Diary of Madame Mao won the 2025 Carnegie Mellon University Press Translation Prize and will be published in 2026. Her poems, translations, and essays have appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus, Tikkun, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Split This Rock’s The Quarry. She lives in Silver Spring, MD.
Kim Roberts Meikle is the author of seven books of poems, most recently Q&A for the End of the World, a collaboration with Michael Gushue (WordTech Editions, 2025), and two guidebooks, including The District’s Departed: Walking Tours of DC-Area Cemeteries (Rivanna Books, 2026). Meikle co-curates DC Pride Poem-a-Day each June, and co-directs the Pride Poetry Fellowship at the Arts Club of Washington.
Dan Vera is a writer, editor, and literary historian. He co-edited Imaniman: Poets Writing In The Anzaldúan Borderlands and authored three books of poetry, most recently, Celestial Fire: Songs For A Love That Dares. His work has been featured by the Poetry Foundation, the NEA, the Poetry Out Loud project; and appears in textbooks, university curricula, and various journals and anthologies.
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