We’re having an all-day party to celebrate the 100th birthday of world-renowned Chilean (anti)poet Nicanor Parra!

Here’s a taste of what we’ll be doing to mark this grand centenary:

• Starting at noon, guests will be giving readings from Chilean writers every half an hour
• There’ll be an opportunity for you to share your favorite Parra poems
• From 7pm onwards, we’ll host a reading and discussion with poet and Parra translator Dave Oliphant, who has many tales to tell about his interactions with the great man
• Cake and refreshments with the program at 7pm

Nicanor Parra is hugely popular in his native Chile, and many consider him to be one of the most significant poets of Spanish-language poetry—Pablo Neruda called him “one of the great names in the literature of our language.” Parra has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 2011 he was awarded the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious literary prize in the Spanish-speaking world. Despite his fame as a poet, Parra kept up his “day job” as a professor of theoretical physics until his retirement in 1991. Parra describes himself as an “anti-poet,” someone who disdains any hint of poetic grandiosity. He shuns poetic convention in favor of playful, conversational musings, and his verse is full of raucous wit and humor. Stop by Malvern Books to celebrate his happy 100th and learn more about this wonderful poet!