We are pleased to announce Samuel Jambrovic as the winner of our first literary contest "Poetry Lockdown", with a poem titled "Ánade".
This literary contest was open to all students enrolled in the Latin American Studies, Portuguese or Spanish programs offered by the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, active between September 2018 and April 2020.
The jury was composed of faculty members in our department. They praised Jambrovic's "Ánade" as an elegant poem with rich allegorical meaning and beautiful rhythm. The poem describes the seemingly simple life of waterfowl, using paleontology and metaphysics to imbue the creature with a consciousness that unfolds in the mind of the reader.
The first honorific mention goes to Oliver Velázquez Toledo, with a poem titled "Homeless". The jury commended this poem for bringing forward a social issue worsened in our city by the pandemic. It vividly describes a walk down Bloor and Bathurst, making an urgent call to the reader to empathize and act in favor of those left behind.
The second honorific mention goes to Ken Ogata, with a poem titled "Como piedra en el zapato". The poem shares some of the fears and worries of life in quarantine during the pandemic, and ends in an optimistic tone encouraging the redefinition of our values and our collective consciousness.
Congratulations to all! And thank you to those who participated in the contest.
After the success of this contest, the Department is organizing a second literary contest of short fiction to be run in the Fall term. More details will be announced soon.