Alma Mater I (Poetry in Three Languages) encompasses a series of poems written from 1980 through 2010, chronologically in Spanish, English, and French. Some poems written from 1980 and until 1989, which survived my immigration to the United States, appear in the book. These poems were part of a collection that I had intended to publish in a small book of about 30 poems, which I had entitled Poemas de Perfección y Encanto (Poems of Perfection and Enchantment). I had given a copy of my collection to Diario del Caribe in Barranquilla, Colombia, which published some of these poems in a literary page called La Esquina, named after the literary group lead by Gilberto Marenco Better, Gaspar Camaaño y Sigifredo Eusse Marino, journalists and writers of that newspaper. I had also given some of these poems to El Heraldo, which actually never published them. Instead, El Heraldo had published my short story Ese Obsceno Personaje Llamado María (That Obscene Character Called María), the winning short story at Universidad del Valle (1983). I had provided El Heraldo, and explicitly Germán Vargas, a close friend of García Márquez and a member of his literary group, with a copy of my still unpublished book El Retrato del Fantasma (The Portrait of The Ghost), during a brief meeting that we had in his newspaper office. That book is based on my child’s perception of my grandfather Hermenegildo Carranza, which I saw hanging on the wall for several years during my early childhood. My greatest literary disappointment came a while back when Vantage Press returned that manuscript to me, and since then I have mostly written poetry during my spare time. El Retrato del Fantasma is the next book I intend to get published with some additions of short stories written in the USA.
In Barranquilla, Colombia, I had read some of the poems at Universidad del Norte Auditorium, where I had also presented by audiovisual iconographic work on Bolívar’s life and at Universidad Simón Bolívar, accepting an invitation from his President, José Consuegra. I read my writings at the Foyer of Teatro Amira de La Rosa sponsored by Banco de la República, with an invitation from one of my greatest friends, its Director, Alfredo Gómez Zureck, a well-know pianist and engineer.
I had also read both my poems and excerpts of my short stories at the literary radio program Aquí la Literatura, directed by Professor Edmundo Ramos Vives, a literary program that also had international reception in the Caribbean. Professor Ramos Vives was the first person ever to call me "poet".
However, most of the poetry was written in the USA after my immigration in May 1989. I wrote my first poem in French in 2006, which happened spontaneously after reading about Rilke’s inability to write in French in his correspondence, and in 2008 after my visit to Paris, but most poetry written in French was done in the first half of this year (2010.)
In the United States, I had published my poems at NJIT (The Vector), Montclair State University (The Montclarion), and I have read them at Rutgers University and other literary cafes in New Jersey.
Indeed, I have also published some poems in this, my Alma Mater Literata blog.
The book describes some of my experiences at school and life events that overlaps during that time. Although the book is based on real life events it overlays facts with fantasy and creativity.
The following is the descriptive page from Alma Mater I.
About Alma Mater I
This book is in many ways the story of my university life, but also the book of cosmology, inspiration, romance, love and friendship, success and failure, achievement and disappointment. This is a book for everyone who ever attended school, at an alma mater, and can read poetry in at least one of the three languages in which it is originally written.
Acerca de Alma Mater I
Este libro es en su mayor parte un relato de mi vida universitaria, pero también el libro de la cosmología, de la inspiración, del romance, del amor y la amistad, del éxito y el fracaso, de los logros y las frustraciones. Este libro es para todo aquel que alguna vez estudió en un alma mater y para quien pueda leer poesía en por lo menos uno de los tres idiomas en que originalmente está escrito.
Ce livre-ci est en grande partie l’histoire de ma vie universitaire, mais c’est aussi le livre de la cosmologie, de l’inspiration, du romance, de l’amour et l’amitié, du succès et l’insuccès, de la réussite et la déception. Ceci est un livre pour tous ceux qui ont étudié à une alma mater et peuvent lire de la poésie au moins en l’une de trois langues dont il est écrit.
The book can be ordered from xlibris.com, amazon.com, barnesandnobles.com and it will be available n local bookstores shortly.
The book is available in hard cover (recommended), paperback, and as an e-book.
ISBN13 Hardcover: 978-1-4535-4897-4 ISBN13 Softcover: 978-1-4535-4896-7 ISBN13 eBook: 978-1-4535-4898-1 Published by Xlibris
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