Hemisferio Cuir An Anthology of Young Queer Latin American Poetry: An interview with editor & translator Leo Boix

Buy: Hemisferio Cuir An Anthology of Young Queer Latin American Poetry | fourteen poems | March 2025 | 220 pages | ISBN: 9781738487158

Laura Villareal (LV): I’m always interested in the process of putting together an anthology because it can be so different from editor to editor. What was the process like in curating, translating, and editing Hemisferio Cuir? Did you have prior knowledge of each contributor’s work?

Leo Boix (LB): The process was truly inspiring. It began with my efforts to compile a report on contemporary Latin American poetry for the Poetry Translation Centre (PTC) in London, which subsequently led me to translate the works of Argentine poet Diana Bellessi, who is regarded by many as the godmother of lesbian poetry in Argentina. During this endeavour, which took me many months, I recognised the pressing need for an anthology of young queer voices from Latin America, as I could not locate any anthology of this nature in English. It was through the process of researching emerging voices in the region that the concept of an anthology of young queer Latin American poets began to take shape. Several anthologies inspired me throughout this journey, including The Other Tiger: Recent Poetry from Latin America by Richard Gwyn, The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology, edited by Cecilia Vicuña and Ernesto Livon- Grosman, Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color by Christopher Soto, and The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry by Francisco Aragón, to name but a few. These anthologies were seminal to my research and led me to conclude the need to address this significant gap.

I had begun translating some of these voices, including those of Argentine Silvia Giaganti, Colombian trans poet Flor Bárcenas Feria, and Peruvian Fiorella Terrazas. I then undertook the gradual process of contacting editors, translators, poets and colleagues both in Latin America and beyond to expand my research and compile a list of exciting new voices from the entire spectrum of the LGBTQAI+ community, including those from the trans and BIPOC communities, indigenous groups, from endangered languages, and regions outside traditional urban centres. I consulted online zines, anthologies, poetry magazines, and books, and received numerous recommendations from poets and colleagues in both the UK and Latin America. The list of poets grew, and with it, the links connecting each poem and poet built into a map of literary voices that was exciting and thought-provoking. I proposed the initial project to fourteen poems, a London-based poetry publisher, spotlighting the most exciting LGBTQ+ poets in anthologies and pamphlets. They promptly accepted my proposal, marking the moment when the seminal idea transformed into a tangible anthology.

LV: As far as the translation of each poet’s work, how closely did you work with the poets? I know some poet-translator teams go back and forth a lot and some don’t at all.

LB: That’s such a fascinating question. I've had the wonderful opportunity to work closely with poets who are also translators, like the talented Argentinean Paula Galíndez. We delved into translation from various viewpoints, discussing specific words and terms from both Argentine and UK perspectives. In some instances, I was given the creative freedom to make decisions, either because the poet didn’t speak English or they kindly allowed me to take the lead. One memorable project involved a poem by Argentine Washington Atencio, which we beautifully translated together during a Poetry Translation Centre workshop I led at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in 2024, with the invaluable assistance of the brilliant translator John Herring. I also had the joy of including poems by the Puerto Rican poet Myr Olivares, translated through the close collaboration of celebrated poet and translator Roque Raquel Salas Rivera. I approached each poem with a personal touch, sometimes paying extra attention to pronouns, complex ideas and wordplay in Spanish, and at other times tackling the challenge of translating a sonnet, like with Salvadoran poet Alberto López Serrano, while carefully preserving the rhyming schemes and internal rhythm in my English translations. Each poem was unique, deserving of special care and attention, and I truly cherished the challenge of bringing them into English, despite it not being my first language. Writing poetry in both Spanish and English is a journey I deeply enjoy, and one that informs my work as a translator.

LV: I felt very moved by many of the poems especially “[Post]humous Poem” by Alejandra Rosa Morales, “Enunciation Displacement” by Pablo Romero, and “But if I’m honest” by Paula Galíndez. You very generously, but succinctly, encapsulate the strengths of all the anthology poets in your introduction. Each poet has such a distinct voice and approach to poetics. As you were translating, did you encounter any challenges or revelations?

LB: What a lovely selection! Each poem in the anthology presented its own unique, distinctive challenge during translation, whether in form, concept, syntax or music. Yet, they also offered me an exciting chance to discover a specific topic or a personal and collective truth, which inspired me as a poet and a translator. From the very beginning of this book project, my goal was to include as many poems and poets with distinctive voices as possible, showcasing works that explore a wide array of themes relevant to today’s Latin America, particularly in the context of the rising anti-trans and anti-LGBTQAI+ rights all over the world that were hard-fought. These themes and preoccupations ranged from family relationships and queer identities to issues of discrimination and trans experiences, while also exploring all forms of love, loss, and sexual desire in the context of a post-patriarchal society.

LV: You’ve been a wonderful advocate for Latinx writers over the years. Letras Latinas collaborated with you on Season 2 of Curated Conversation(s): A Latinx Poetry Show to showcase UK poets and put them in conversation with US based poets. I think you’re uniquely positioned to answer a few questions. The first being: what areas of global Latinx literature need tending to? Where can people pitch in to help make the work accessible in their respective countries? And second, since this anthology is the first of its kind in much of the English-speaking world, what are your personal hopes and aspirations for this anthology?

LB: So many vibrant areas of global Latinx literature truly deserve our attention and support. We still need to shine a spotlight on BIPOC Latinx writers, as well as those who are using endangered languages, and those who are disabled or neurodivergent, which sadly have been marginalised for too long. Let's also uplift the voices of Latinx and Latin American writers from communities who are facing increasing attacks, including trans, migrant, and refugee writers. We should also celebrate the creativity of polylingual Latinx writers who courageously push the boundaries of literary genres and explore other art forms in their work. While we have a lot of progress to make and the current challenges are many, projects like Hemisferio Cuir are taking us in the right direction.

I hope this anthology reaches as many audiences as possible, shining a light on the incredible work of the poets featured in Hemisferio Cuir—many of whom have never had their voices translated into English before. My goal is to inspire others, both in our community and beyond, to continue their fight for expression and equality. The response from audiences in the UK has been incredible, and we are already planning launches in Los Angeles, England, and Latin America.

Watch contributors from Hemisferio Cuir read their poems

Note: Pablo Jofre's video was directed by Sailin Carbonell and Leonardo Blanco

Leo Boix is a bilingual Latinx poet born in Argentina who lives and works in London and Deal, Kent, UK. His debut English collection Ballad of a Happy Immigrant (Chatto & Windus, 2021), was awarded the Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice. It was selected as one of the best five books of poetry by The Guardian (August 2021). Boix second English collection, Southernmost: Sonnets, is forthcoming with Chatto & Windus (Penguin Random House) in June 2025. He has also authored two poetry collections in Spanish, Un Lugar Propio (2015) and Mar de Noche (2017), with Letras del Sur Editora, Argentina. He is the main editor and translator of Hemisferio Cuir: An Anthology of Young Queer Latin American Poetry(fourteen poems, 2025). Boix has also translated many Latin American poets into English, including Diana Bellessi, José Watanabe, Liliana Ancalao, Cecilia Vicuña, Oscar David López and Jorge Eduardo Eielson. He has been included in many anthologies, such as the Forward book of poetry, Ten: Poets of the New Generation (Bloodaxe), The Best New British and Irish Poets Anthology 2019-2020 (BlackSpring Press), Islands Are But Mountains: Contemporary Poetry from Great Britain (Platypus Press), 100 Poems to Save the Earth (Seren Books), Why I Write Poetry (Nine Arches Press), 100 Queer Poems (Vintage/Penguin), Até Mais/Until More: An Anthology of Latinx Futurisms, (Deep Vellum), Un Nuevo Sol: British Latinx Writers (flipped eye), Mapping the Future: The Complete Works Poets (Bloodaxe), among others. His poems have appeared in many national and international journals, including POETRY, PN Review, The Poetry Review, World Literature Today, Modern Poetry in Translation, and Poetry London. Boix is a fellow of The Complete Works program, co-director of Un Nuevo Sol, an Arts Council England national scheme to nurture new voices of Latinx writers in the UK, an advisory board member of the Poetry Translation Centre and a board member of Magma Poetry. He has written poems commissioned by Royal Kew Gardens, the National Poetry Library, Tate Modern, Whitstable Biennale, Bradford Literary Festival, Estuary Festival, Un Nuevo Sol, La Linea Festival and the Kent Mining Museum in England. He received the Bart Wolffe Poetry Prize Award, the Keats-Shelley Prize, a PEN Award, and The Society of Authors’ Foundation and K. Blundell Trust.

Order a copy of Leo's forthcoming book Southernmost: Sonnets (Penguin Random House)

Laura Villareal is the author of Girl’s Guide to Leaving (University of Wisconsin Press, 2022). She earned her MFA at Rutgers University—Newark and has been awarded fellowships and scholarships from the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts, National Book Critics Circle’s Emerging Critics Program, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program at University of Texas-Austin. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, Poetry Magazine, AGNI, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere.