Poetry

Momtaza Mehri and Violeta Gil in conversation with Cristina Ward

Poetry of the World

Friday 12 September 2025, 12.40pm – 1.30pm –  IE University. Aula Magna

Momtaza Mehri is an award-winning writer and researcher working in the fields of poetry, criticism, education and radio. Since 2014 her work has been published in literary journals and magazines such as Granta, Poetry International, The Poetry Review, Artforum, Vogue and The Guardian.

Described by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘a truly transnational 21st century poet whose words resonate in the wider world’, Momtaza Mehri was named Young People's Laureate of London and is currently poet-in-residence at Homerton College, University of Cambridge. Her first collection of poems, Bad Diaspora Poems, was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and won the Forward 2023 Award for Best First Collection, as well as the Eric Gregory Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. The collection asks the question of what it means to write diasporic poetry, blending the experience of his own family with the stories of many others in Somalia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Together with Violeta Gil, a theatre-maker and writer and prestigious Spanish poet of her generation, Mehri will talk about her writing and the role poetry can play in challenging a world governed by race, class and gender. The talk will be moderated by Cristina Ward, director of the Arts Department of the British Council in Spain.

At the end of the event, the authors will sign copies of their books

Event in English

Co-organised with British Council

Angélica Tanarro in conversation with Carlos Aganzo

What we (don't) know about words

Friday 12 September 2025, 6.30pm – 7.20pm –  Biblioteca Pública de Segovia

Two poets. Two writers. Two cultural journalists. Two faithful to the word, to its ultimate consequences. Angélica Tanarro and Carlos Aganzo talk about their experiences in the world of journalism and culture, but also about their own poetic work, in that other way of looking at the world that poetry always has, and about their relationship with readers. Two very different voices, but the same literary devotion.

Event in Spanish

With the collaboration of the Junta de Castilla y León and Biblioteca Pública de Segovia

Reading of own and other people's poems

Saturday 13 September 2025, 10.30am – 11.30am –  Torreón de Lozoya (entrada por la Calle Grabador Espinoza)

A new edition of Own and Others, a series of read-aloud readings now in its 17th year. The Torreón de Lozoya is one of the most iconic buildings in the city — a fortified tower-house, a type that was very common in Segovia between the 13th and 15th centuries. It is a palatial complex with two towers, a courtyard, and a garden with a fortified gallery. Carlos Aganzo, Guillermo de'Medici, Marian Hens, Carlos Hernández-Lahoz, Fernando R. La Fuente, Momtaza Mehri, Ainhoa Sánchez, Javier Velaza, Cristina Ward and Beltrán Gambier will read their own texts or those of their favourite poets.

José Félix Valdivieso, poet and self-confessed lover of languages and language, will be joining the readings as master of ceremonies.

Event with readings in Spanish, Dutch and English

Co-organized with the Torreón de Lozoya Foundation of the Caja Segovia Foundation and the collaboration of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E

Alfonso Alegre Heitzmann in conversation with Félix Losada Vieira

Poetry, threshold of the world

Saturday 13 September 2025, 5.30pm – 6.20pm –  Torreón de Lozoya

From the poetic roots of his latest book, Hueso en astilla, Alfonso Alegre Heitzmann talks to Félix Losada Vieira about writing as a form of attention, the word as threshold, silence as origin. Poetry as a place of presence: a way of being in the world that does not seek to represent, but to reveal. A conversation that crosses the arts, mysticism and the poetic memory of an author who has known how to listen to the world from its deepest breath.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books.

Event in Spanish

With the support of Acción Cultural Española, AC/E

Javier Velaza in conversation with Jesús García Calero

Loewe Prize 2024

Saturday 13 September 2025, 7.30pm – 8.20pm –  Torreón de Lozoya

Javier Velaza, the winner of the 37th edition of the Loewe Poetry Prize for his work Las ignorancias (The Ignorances), explores the consciously ignorant nature of humans and attempts to construct an ethical and aesthetic commitment from there. As Jaime Siles has written, "this book overflows with classical and vital wisdom, bringing the value and meaning of the everyday into focus." He will have a conversation about his influences and career with Jesús García Calero, director of ABC Cultural.

At the end of the event, the author will sign copies of his books

Event in Spanish

Co-organized with the Loewe Foundation and Fundación Torreón de Lozoya of Caja Segovia Foundation