Palabra Pura Series: Luis Alberto Ambroggio & Frank Varela

Date: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Time: Reading begins at 7:30PM
Cost: Free admission, all ages
Location: Decima Musa, 1901 S. Loomis Ave., Chicago
A short Open Mic will begin the evening.



American, born in Córdoba, Argentina, Luis Alberto Ambroggio, member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, resides in the Washington Metropolitan area since 1967. Winner of the 2004 Spanish TV Award for poems on Solitute and other distinctions, Ambroggio’s latest books of poetry, Laberintos de Humo (Tierra Firme, Buenos Aires, 2005) and El testigo se desnuda (Puerta de Alcala, 2002) has been widely praised in reviews in Europe, U.S. and Latin America. He is the author of nine collections of poetry published in Spain, Argentina and the US. His poetry has appeared in anthologies including DC Poets Against the War, Red Hot Salsa, Tigertail, Poetic Voices Without Boundaries and Cool Salsa , a collection described by Publishers Weekly as hot as jalapeños and as cool as jazz, that serves up “inglés con Chili” and Spanish that “you feel in the blood of your soul." His poems have also appeared in magazines such as Passport (University of Arkansas), Scholastic, International Poetry Review (UNC), Hispanic Culture Review and others. Some of his poems are included in Textbooks of Literature such as Pasajes and Bridges to Literature. Ambroggio’s poetry has been selected for the Archives of Hispanic-American Literature of the Library of Congress.



Brooklyn–born poet Frank Varela is the author of three previous books of poetry—Serpent Underfoot, Bitter Coffee, and Caleb’s Exile. The Riverside Publishing Company and Arte Publico Press have published his children’s stories. His poetry has appeared in The Hispanic Culture Review, Hostos Review, Revista Chicano–Riqueña, Another Magazine, Apocalypse, The Floating Borderlands, Dialogo, U.S. Latino Literature Today, Tía Chucha Press, Centro Journal, The Americas Review, e-poets.net, chicagopoetry.com, The Bilingual Review, Chiricú, and Puerto Del Sol.