An Irish-Spanish poetry event that brings us the beauty of words at the ISLA Festival
What makes someone a poet? Starting from this question, Sergio García and Billy Ramsell present their two most recent poetry collections, which account for their mental or physical displacement: from Cuba to Tierra de Campos and from Ireland to Barcelona, respectively.
While Sergio García Zamora, in
El pan y la palabra
, makes manual labour and its daily spiritual dimension the core of his poems, Billy Ramsell, in
Render
, presents a selection of work by the 20th-century fictional Catalan poet, Alberto Cenas, to reflect on the evolution of a poet.
In conversation with Rafael Mendes.
In Spanish and English, with simultaneous interpretation into both languages.
Enter the draw to win a live caricature portrait by artist Brady Izquierdo.
About the guests
Sergio García Zamora
(Cuba, 1986)
holds a degree in Hispanic Philology. He is the author of the awarded poetry collections
El frío de vivir
,
Diario del buen recluso
,
La canción del crucificado
,
Los uniformes
,
El río de los derrotados
,
Inventario del paraíso
and
El pan y la palabra
. He currently lives in Paredes de Nava, Spain, where he directs the Aula de Poesía project.
Billy Ramsell
is a Cork-based poet and writer. He has published two collections of poetry with Dedalus Press,
Complicated Pleasures
in 2007 and
The Architect’s Dream of Winter
in 2013, which was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award and was recently published in Italian translation. He has been invited to read his work at many festivals and literary events around the world. A third collection,
Render
, a Poetry Book Societ recommendation, was published by Banshee Press in June 2026.
Rafael Mendes
is a Brazilian-Irish poet. He holds a PhD in Hispanic Studies from Trinity College Dublin, where he is a Teaching Fellow.In Spanish and English, with simultaneous interpretation into both languages.
Organised by Instituto Cervantes in partnership with the Embassy of Cuba.
With the support of Dublin UNESCO City of Literature-Dublin City Council and RTE Supporting the Arts.