LITERATURE + LECTURES

Project Row Houses presents Read/Write Club with Jen Hofer Part II, the second evening of reading, writing and dialogue with innovative poet and translator Jen Hofer, sponsored by Antena Books/Libros Antena, a temporary bookstore, reading room and literary experimentation lab at Project Row Houses at 2515 Holman St 77004.

The night will focus on two books by Dolores Dorantes, a Mexican writer from Ciudad Juarez: sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre: A Bilingual Edition of Books 2 and 3 of Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes, translated by Jen Hofer, Kenning Editions / Counterpath Press.

It's encouraged to try to read the book prior to the Club meeting, and the book is available at Antena Books/Libros Antena. However, if you can't read beforehand, still come! We will read together in the space and dialogue with the translator of the book. The author, Dolores Dorantes, might Skype in to speak with us as well. Then we will write together.

Dolores Dorantes was born in Veracruz in 1973 and has lived most of her life in Ciudad Juárez, where socioeconomic violence and politically charged daily brutalities have informed her radically humane and beautifully incisive work as a poet, journalist, and cultural worker. Dorantes is a rare presence in Mexican literary communities, in that she takes a wide-ranging international stance toward poetry and poetics while refusing to accept state support from a government she cannot respect.

She has published four book-length works of poetry in Mexico and is a founding member of the border arts collective Compañía Frugal (Frugal Company), which counts among its activities publication of the monthly poetry broadside series Hoja Frugal, printed in editions of four thousand and distributed free throughout Mexico.

Jen Hofer (pictured) is an LA-based poet, translator, interpreter, teacher, knitter, book-maker, public letter-writer, and urban cyclist. Recent books include one (Palm Press, 2009); a translation of Myriam Moscona’s Ivory Black (Les Figues Press); sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, translations from Dolores Dorantes by Dolores Dorantes (Counterpath Press and Kenning Editions, 2008); The Route, with Patrick Durgin (Atelos, 2008); lip wolf, a translation of lobo de labio by Laura Solórzano (Action Books, 2007); and Sin puertas visibles: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by Mexican Women (University of Pittsburgh Press and Ediciones Sin Nombre, 2003).

Forthcoming books are poem sequences from the valley of death (Ponzipo) and Laws (Dusie Books), and translations of Alan Mills’ Síncopes (Piedra Santa). Recent writing appears in Aufgabe, Mandorla, Or, out of nothing, and Punto de partida.

She teaches at CalArts, Goddard College, and Otis College, and works locally and nationally as a social justice interpreter.