On Saturday, October 19, 2024, at 3:00pm, Librería Laberinto will host a discussion of Alberto Martínez-Márquez’s poetry collection, Poemas para partirte la cara [may be roughly translated as “Poems to smash your face in”] (Editorial Isla Negra, 2023). Librería Laberinto is located at 251 Calle de la Cruz, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Description: Cuban writer Barbarella D’Acevedo writes, “Alberto Martínez-Márquez is a resounding poet who, with absolute freedom, dares, in Poemas para partidate la cara, to play with words, the very essence of the poetic act… The book brings together various stages of the work of this incessant creator and thus results in several books in one, also due to a multiplicity of styles and themes, and the way he handles them. His verses mix the high and the low, with a rhythm that invites reading out loud and which may also be understood as performance. Alberto knows what he is doing and only from that knowledge, which is that of an erudite, he subverts the norm, mocks it, and ends up sublimating it, in the style of the best poetic avant-garde, to which he also pays homage.”
Alberto Martínez-Márquez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in 1966. He is a writer, professor, screenwriter, translator, editor, amateur photographer, craftsman, and cultural manager. He has published numerous critical essays in peer-reviewed journals. His books include El límite volcado: Antología de la generación de poetas del ochenta (in collaboration with Mario R. Cancel, 2000; PEN Club de Puerto Rico Award); Las formas del vértigo (2001); Frutos terrestres (2007); Contramundos (2010); Contigo he aprendido a conocer la noche (2011); Muerte en familia (2013); Avatares de la palabra (2016); La lógica de los ardides (Puerto Rico PEN International Poetry Award, 2016), and Historias amarradas (in collaboration with Emma J. Rodríguez, 2020). In 2002, he published the volume of short works and performances Teatro desechable and a second book of short stories, entitled Supongamos que soy Enderman. He is the founder and editor of the electronic magazine Letras Salvajes (2003-present). Currently, he is the director of the Humanities Department at the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla, where he has worked as a professor since 1997.
For more information, see https://www.islanegra.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=491&virtuemart_category_id=5 and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001228886403