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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
karen lord
karen lord
Barbadian writer and editor Karen Lord is the author of Redemption in Indigo, which won the 2011 William L. Crawford Award and the 2012 Kitschies Golden Tentacle (Best Debut), and was nominated for the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. Her other works include Unraveling, the second novel in the Redemption series, and The Best of All Possible Worlds, The Galaxy Game, and The Blue, Beautiful World (longlisted for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction) in the Cygnus Beta series. She edited New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean, and coedited We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope (Locus Award for Best Anthology) with Annalee Newitz and Malka Older. The Angel at the Gates, published in October 2026, is her most recent novel.
RICHARD GEORGES
Richard Georges is the first Virgin Islands Poet Laureate (2020) and the author of three collections of poetry, as well as essays and fiction. His most recent collection, Epiphaneia (2019), won the 2020 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. His first debut, Make Us All Islands (2017), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and his second book, Giant (2018), was highly commended by the Forward Prizes and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize. His next collection of poems, Shore/Lines (2027), is forthcoming from Peepal Tree Press in the UK and Akashic Books in the US. A recipient of a Fellowship from the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study, and a Pushcart Prize nominee, Richard holds a PhD in Critical and Creative Writing from the University of Sussex, and is a Founding Editor of Moko. He currently serves as the seventh president of H. Lavity Stoutt Community College in Tortola. Richard is working on a novel.
CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS
Marta Aponte Alsina
Marta Aponte Alsina es autora de quince libros: novelas, cuentos y ensayos. Fue directora de la Editorial del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña y de la Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Tuvo a su cargo la selección de textos y el ensayo crítico de la antología Narraciones puertorriqueñas, publicada por Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho, Venezuela, en 2017. Este año se publicará su libro de crónicas y ensayos caribeños Literaturas de países pequeños: Las Vírgenes.
Mayra Santos Febres
Dr. Mayra Santos-Febres is an Afro-Puerto Rican author, poet, novelist, essayist, literary critic and Artist in Residence at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Her award-winning work focuses on themes of race, diaspora identity, female sexuality, gender fluidity, desire, and power. She is a cultural activist who helps to bring books to young readers and the less fortunate. Her writings have been translated into French, English, German, and Italian. Her most recent novel, La otra Julia (The Other Julia) narrates the short and intense life of Julia de Burgos, revealing a new facet of the iconic poet through the voice of a contemporary writer.
She has been awarded international fellowships such as the John S. Guggenheim, Ford, Mellon, and Rockefeller Foundation, and prizes including the Juan Rulfo from Radio France Internationale, the Letras de Oro from Spain, the Novel Prize from the Puerto Rican Literature Institute, and the Primavera Novel Prize. Santos Febres is also responsible for the development of University of Puerto Rico’s Afro Diasporic and Race Studies Program, which was awarded a Mellon Foundation grant for academic diversification.
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
Roque Raquel Salas Rivera is a Puerto Rican poet, educator, and translator. The 2018-19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, his awards and recognitions include the Premio Nuevas Voces, the Letras Boricuas Fellowship, the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award, and the inaugural Ambroggio Prize. His eight poetry books include lo terciario/ the tertiary (Noemi, 2019), longlisted for the National Book Award and winner of the Lambda Literary Award, and while they sleep (under the bed is another country) (Birds LLC, 2019), which inspired the title of the exhibition no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria. His poetry has been musicalized by Angélica Negrón, Jonathan Woody, Anaïs Mejías, and others. In 2026, he won a second Lammy for his epic poem Algarabía (Graywolf, 2025). He is currently an assistant professor in the Comparative Literature Program at the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico.
Xavier Valcárcel de Jesús
Xavier Valcárcel de Jesús es escritor, artista visual, profesor y gestor cultural. Cuenta con un bachillerato en Diseño Ambiental y Educación en Bellas Artes, y una maestría en Administración y Gestión Cultural, de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. En 2021 fue ganador de la beca Letras Boricuas. Ha publicado poemarios, una crónica y su primera novela titulada Los nidos. Entre sus obras se encuentran: Palo de lluvia (2010), El deber del pan (2013), Fe de calendario (2016), Quise beber morir soñando (2024) y la crónica personal Aterrizar no es regreso (2019).
Cezanne Cardona
Cezanne Cardona Morales es escritor, columnista y profesor puertorriqueño. Cuenta con una maestría en Literatura Comparada de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras. Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Nuevas Voces por su libro de cuentos titulado Levittown mon amour (2018) y fue ganador del Certamen de Cuento de El Nuevo Día (2009). Sus cuentos han aparecido en varias revistas y antologías como: En el ojo del huracán (2011), Kill the Ámpaya! The Best Latin American Baseball Fiction (2016) y A toda Costa (2018). Publicó, además, las novelas: La velocidad de lo perdido (2010) y Esto también es una casa (2025).
**More keynote speakers and special guests will be added to this page as they become available.**
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