Juana Adcock

I am a Mexican poet, translator and performer working in English and Spanish. I am fascinated by what language can do, and I often investigate this in my work. I sometimes write in Spanglish or borrow words or phrases from other languages such as Italian and Greek.

When performing poetry, I sometimes use additional elements such as a tape recorder, effects or live music, on occasion even creating multilingual poetry sound installations, emphasizing the presence of the voice and using music to highlight the sound of the words. I also make music with two rock bands, The Raptors and Las Mitras, playing bass and writing and singing some of the songs for the latter.

I have performed at numerous literary festivals internationally, taking part in many multilingual poetry translation workshops. I have translated some of the most daring authors working in the Spanish language today, such as Gabriela Wiener, Diego Osorno and Giuseppe Caputo, and have facilitated translation and creative writing workshops for children and adults in a variety of settings. I’m interested in co-translation and collaborations across different art forms and cultures.

(Photo credit: Kotryna Ula)