Monday, October 1, 2007, 7 p.m.
Leo A. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, First Floor
South Campus

Peruvian poet and novelist Antonio Cisneros began his distinguished writing career while still a student with 1961’s Destierro. This volume of poetry is regarded among the classics of Latin-American lyric poetry.

Early in his career, Mr. Cisneros was influenced by the Anglo-American beat literature and inspired by its ironic gestures and everyday sound. Later, he focused on political issues to counteract what he says was increasing political indifference in Latin-American society. Comentarios reales de Antonio Cisneros was aimed at the distortion of history by officials in his own country. His greatest success to date came in 1968 with the publication of Canto ceremonial contra un oso hormiguero, for which he was honored in Havana with the prize of the Casa de las Américas. This collection was influenced by his critical involvement with the social problems of his time. In 1972, affected by the first political setbacks of socialism in Latin America and a crisis in his own life, he wrote Como higuera en un campo de golf.

Since the end of the 1960s, Mr. Cisneros has held countless temporary teaching posts at international universities. He has published 20 collections of lyric poems and two prose works, which have been translated into five languages.

In 2000 Mr. Cisneros was awarded the international Gabriela Mistral Prize in Mexico for lifetime achievement. He is now living and working in Lima where he has been in charge of the daily radio program La Crónica del oso hormiguero since 1996.