TRANSPLANT AND AGUAS / WATERS | Busboys and Poets Books
Date and Time
Apr 7, 2024 6:00 pm
Location
Takoma
235 Carroll St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20012
Apr 7, 2024 6:00 pm
Takoma
Transplant: A Memoir is a page-turning, personal journey into one Black woman’s battle with kidney disease and the American medical system. Bernardine Watson’s book is at once a truth-telling and an affirmation of the life force propelling us all toward love and hope. A vibrant, powerful portrait of what it means to be Black, female, and confronting a deadly disease in today’s America.
Aguas/Waters introduces the rich and vibrant imagery of Uruguayan poet Miguel Avero to the English-speaking world. Selected works from two of his early collections highlight the legacy of magical realism and rioplatense rhythms in this prolific poet's fierce style. This first bilingual edition matches each original Spanish poem with an inspired translation by Washington D.C. poet Jona Colson. Aguas/Waters is the premier selection in the Biennial WWPH Translation Series.
Bernardine Watson and Jona Colson are joining us on the Busboys stage to discuss their writings. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and the authors will be signing following the program.
This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of TRANSPLANT AND LEDA’S DAUGHTERS will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is IN PERSON and will NOT be livestreamed.
We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books
Berrnardine (Dine) Watson is a nonfiction writer and poet, originally from Philadelphia, but who now lives in Washington, DC. She has written on social policy issues for numerous major foundations, nonprofit organizations, and for The Washington Post Health and Science section and She the People blog. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Rising Voices/ University Professors Press, Sanctuary/ Darkhouse Books, and The Great World of Days/ Day Eight Arts. Dine is a member of the 2015 class of the DC Commission on Arts and Humanities Poet in Progress Program and was selected to participate in the 2017 and 2018 classes of the Hurston Wright.
Jona Colson is a Queer poet, translator, and educator. He graduated from Goucher College with a double Bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish and earned his MFA from American University and a Master’s in Literature/Linguistics from George Mason University. His poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Ploughshares, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere. In addition to writing his own poetry, he also translates the Spanish language poetry of Miguel Avero from Montevideo, Uruguay. His translations can be found in Prairie Schooner, Tupelo Quarterly, and Palabras Errantes. He is currently a professor at Montgomery College in Maryland where he teaches English as a Second Language. He lives in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, DC.
Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s mission is to publish literary poets and prose writers, in fiction and creative nonfiction, from across Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia who showcase our region’s rich diversity and talents. We embrace and foster diversity within our own organization, strive to be an anti-racist organization, and an ally to the marginalized and historically underrepresented writers across the region. As a cooperative press, we will bring this effort forward in all our work to reflect and foster the larger literary community in the DMV. The press sponsors three annual competitions for writers living in the DMV. The winners in poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction comprise our yearly slate. The press also publishes a bi-weekly online literary journal, WWPH Writes, which reaches over 1,500 subscribers and readers.
The Washington Writers’ Publishing House is a nonprofit (501c3) established in 1975 by four DC-area poets, and this small literary press is one of the oldest continuously publishing independent presses in America.
More about the Washington Writers’ Publishing House at www.washingtonwriters.org
