Associate Professor Erika Almenara to Lead Poetry Workshop in Two Peruvian Jails

Erika Almenara, associate professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, will lead a poetry workshop at two Peruvian jails, Santa Monica and Virgen de Fatima. Almenara is currently in Lima-Peru as a Fulbright Senior Scholar conducting research while completing her second book: Literary and Cultural Representations of Social Gender Perception in Post-Conflict Societies. 

In 2017 Almenara, a published author, created the course Creative Writing in Spanish. The course introduces students to basic skills and tools needed to be a creative writer in Spanish.

Through her experience teaching this course, Almenara affirmed the healing power of creative writing. The pieces produced by students at the end of the semester cover topics such as anorexia, sexual assault and abandonment, among others.

Almenara’s project at Santa Monica and Virgen de Fatima Peruvian jails involve working with 35 female recluses and share with them basic techniques and resources to produce poems. During the workshop, they will read and comment on authors who have produced literary pieces under jail confinement and other contexts of loss of freedom. At the end of the workshop, the recluses will share their pieces at a public reading that will take place at both jails.

This project is funded by the Fulbright Commission of Peru.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.

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