The Three Manifesti by Davide D’Elia The Centre for Poetic Innovation addresses poetry and poetics creatively, critically and historically, promoting and studying poetic innovation in a broad sense of both terms, from poetry as traditionally understood to poetic aspects of visual and material art forms, of prose writing as well as interactions with music, dance and digital poetry. The key aims of the Centre are:
- Hosting speakers, workshops and conferences
- Support and development of doctoral and post-doctoral research
- Public engagement and impact activities
- Joint Research Grant applications and research projects
Upcoming events
Annual Lecture
The Return of Biography: Leopoldo María Panero’s Letter-Poem to his Father (amid Lessons from Lorca)
Wednesday 21 May, 2-4, KEN: 104 – Lawson Lecture Room
Professor Federico Bonaddio, King’s College London
This lecture centres on Leopoldo María Panero’s letter-poem to his father, Leopoldo Panero, from 1973, which glosses the last poem his father wrote before his death in 1962, entitled ‘Epitaph’. It will consider Leopoldo María’s poem in the context of debates about biography and sentiment in poetry, as well as Deleuze’s and Guattari’s concept of a ‘minor’ literature. It will also refer to the context and character of Lorca’s Poet in New York which, though written some forty years earlier, offers an interesting starting point for the exploration of the Paneros because of its self-conscious treatment of the tension between the poet (personality) and the dominant aesthetic (impersonality).
Federico Bonaddio is Professor of Modern Spanish Studies at King’s College London. He has held positions at the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Hull. He has published two monographs on Federico García Lorca: Federico García Lorca: The Poetics of Self-Consciousness (2010) and Federico García Lorca: The Poetry in All Things (2022). He is the editor of A Companion to García Lorca (2007), and he has co-edited several other volumes. His research interests also include modern Spanish culture and film. He is currently working on cultural responses to Spain’s transition from dictatorship to democracy.
Reading by Stephen Collis and Annie LaFleur
Friday 23 May 2025, 5-7pm, The Garden Seminar Room, Kennedy Hall
Stephen Collis is the author of fifteen books of poetry and prose, including The Commons (2008), the BC Book Prize winning On the Material (2010), and Almost Islands: Phyllis Webb and the Pursuit of the Unwritten (2018)—all published by Talonbooks. A History of the Theories of Rain (2021) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for poetry, and in 2019, Collis was the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada Latner Poetry Prize. The Middle, the second volume in a trilogy, was published in October 2024, and Knock Down House, an experimental memoir, was published by Pamenar Press in 2025. He lives near Vancouver, on unceded Coast Salish Territory, and teaches poetry and poetics at Simon Fraser University.
Annie Lafleur is a writer, researcher and editor specializing in the fine arts. At Le Quartanier, she has published a writing cycle consisting of four books, the most recent of which, Puberté (2023), won the Prix francophone international at the Festival de la poésie de Montréal, the Grand Prix Québecor at the Festival international de la poésie de Trois-Rivières, and a nomination for the Prix Alain-Grandbois from the Académie des lettres du Québec.
Also critically acclaimed, Ciguë (2019) and Bec-de-lièvre (2016) were finalists for the Prix des libraires du Québec and the Governor General’s Literary Awards. She has participated in poetry readings in Quebec, France and Belgium, and presented a performance based on her book Ciguë in several Canadian cities. She was a member of the editorial board of Estuaire magazine from 2014 to 2018, and has contributed as an art critic to Spirale magazine and Espace art actuel.
In 2024, Lafleur was one of the guests of honor at the Salon du Livre de Paris and took part in the prestigious “Libé des écrivain-e-s” issue of the French newspaper Libération. She is currently a research and teaching assistant at Université Laval, and a member of the Conseil de la Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines. She lives between Quebec City, Montreal and Vancouver.