BRUNSWICK

Gulf of Maine Books and the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Southern Maine present a poetry reading by Martin Espada and Lauren Schmidt on Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. at Gulf of Maine Books.

Martin Espada will be reading from his recently published collection of poems “Vivas to Those Who Have Failed” as well as from earlier work. He has published more than 15 books as a poet, essayist, translator and editor, including collections of poetry “The Trouble Ball,” “The Republic of Poetry,” and “A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen.” Espada edited the anthology “Poetry, Like Bread — Poets of the Political Imagination,” with nearly 40 poets from the Americas. His book of essays, “Zapata’s Disciple” was banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the State of Arizona. A graduate of Northeastern University Law School and a former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston’s Latino Community, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Author Sandra Cisneros has called him “the Pablo Neruda of North American poets.”

Lauren Schmidt is the author of three collections of poetry: “Two Black Eyes and A Patch of Missing Hair,” “The Voodoo Doll Parade,” and “Psalms of the Dining Room” — a sequence of poems about her experience volunteering at a soup kitchen in Eugene, Oregon. She is an Instructor of Developmental English at Passaic County Community College in Paterson, New Jersey. She serves as a Poet in the Schools for Paterson Public Schools and volunteer teaches a creative writing workshop and basic literacy classes at a recovery center for homeless men and women in Paterson.

The evening is free and open to the public. For more information, call Gulf of Maine Books at (207) 729-5083.

About the event

· MARTIN ESPADA will be reading from his recently published collection of poems, “Vivas to Those Who Have Failed,” as well as from earlier work