A hundred degrees in the shade.
An empty highway vanishing into the horizon.
A borrowed Chevrolet ready for the junkyard.
A rocky pool in which to bathe.
A glass of beer at a local bar.
Two or three truckdrivers with whom to chat.
Two or three waitresses with whom to flirt.
A stunning twilight.
All of that in return for a rainy afternoon
under a shed with Alicia.
A prolific and multifaceted writer and scholar, Luis Alberto de Cuenca possesses one of Spain’s most distinctive poetic voices. As a self-described “pop poet,” he explores the expressive resources of the conversational register by making use of a variety of materials: comic books, cartoons, Hollywood movies, slang, urban culture. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, Cuenca has been a major influence on younger Spanish poets. In 2015 he received the National Poetry Prize for his book, Cuaderno de vacaciones. From 1996 to 2000 he was the Director of Spain’s national library, in 2021 won the prestigious Federico García Lorca International Poetry Prize, and in 2025 The Reina Sofia Prize for Poetry.
Gustavo Pérez Firmat’s imaginative writing has been published in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Michigan Quarterly Review, and other journals. Pérez Firmat has published several books of poetry in Spanish and English, among them Sin lengua, deslenguado and Bilingual Blues. His books of cultural criticism include Life on the Hyphen and Tongue Ties. His most recent book is My Favorite Monster (2024), a volume of translations from the Spanish of the poems of Spanish poet Luis Alberto de Cuenca. He is the David Feinson Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Columbia University. His website: gustavoperezfirmat.com.