Fernando Valerio Holguín Irmgard Hunt, Fort Collins, Colorado, November 4, 2001 Born in La Vega, Dominican Republic in 1956, Fernando Valerio Holguín is the acclaimed author of numerous critical works on Caribbean literature and film, novels, collections of stories and poems (for further details see the extensive list athttp://lamar.colostate.edu/~fvalerio/publications.htm). He is currently based at Colorado State University where he teaches Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. He is a member of Poetry in the Barn, created in 1999 by an international group of poets who read to each other monthly from work-in-progress in English, German, and Spanish, to critique and discuss texts, the creative process, products and their translation. Mutual support and inspiration has lead to an annual Barn Fest with readings to a wider circle of friends. Praise for his novel Memorias del último cielo: corazón No hay espacio corazón, corazón Heart There is no space Heart, heart Translation: Amanda Castro 
“The momentous events and global changes at the beginning of the millennium could not be foreseen at the end of the old one. As politics inform poetics, and world views are being reshaped, questions arise: Is writing the same? Can language suffice to express what is, or has making words become a little like making hay? Whatever the answers, a hayloft devoid of hay is much like souls begging for soul food. An emptiness both vast and permanent would be too much to bear. Therefore: Poetry in the Barn, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.”
I don’t believe there to be a more audacious or poetic novel from the Dominican Republic. Without a doubt, Valerio-Holguín is one of the most important writers of contemporary Caribbean literature.
Rafael Acevedo, University of Puerto Rico
más ancho que mi dolor
Pablo Neruda
triscando palabras
por esas calles en que dejé mi piel a jirones
y las violetas pastando las últimas gotas de rocío
¿quién te entiende,
corazón, corazón
que no sospeche tus intenciones
de asesino?
¿quién te dicta
ese borbotón de sangre
cuando el dolor se desata
en las sienes
como los truenos de mayo?
corazón, corazón
triscando espinas
¿quién te perdona
el desatino
de haberme derribado
de una pedrada celeste
el alma y la eternidad que quise para un instante?
¿quién asevera
que el aire no fue envenenado
un lunes 9 de enero
y que desde entonces
son más oscuras tus pupilas que las de la muerte
risueña?
corazón, corazón
son sordas las amapolas
y ancho el río de sangre que corre
por mi garganta
es dulce mi dolor
y hace ya bastante
que me dura este desaliento
como para que venga aquí a llorar una vez más
broader than my pain
Pablo Neruda
Mixing words
Through those streets where I left my skin torn
And the violets feeding on the last drops of dew
Who understands you,
Heart, heart
Unsuspecting of your
Assassin’s intentions?
Who dictates to you
That torrent of blood
When the pain unravels
In the temple
Like thunders in May?
Heart, heart
Mixing thorns
Who forgives your
foolishness
Of having knocked down
With a celestial stone
My soul and the eternity I wanted for an instant?
Who says
That the air was not poisoned
On Monday January 9th
And that since then
Your pupils are darker than Death’s
Smiling?
Heart, heart
Deaf are the poppies
And wide is the river of blood that runs
In my throat
Sweet is my pain
And it has been a long time since
I’ve been breathless enough
To come here and cry once more
Fernando’s visit to Newcastle is kindly supported by the British Academy as part of a Joint Activities project on the (Caribbean) bolero and literature with Vanessa Knights, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Newcastle and co-organiser of the ¡VAMOS! festival.