Pedro Lastra (born 3 March 1932) is a Chilean

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and essayist. Lastra is a graduate of the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. Pedro Lastra first came to the U.S. as a visiting professor at SUNY Buffalo in the sixties after judging a short story competition in Cuba as part of his growing resume. There he would meet Julio Rodríguez-Puértolas, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, emeritus, and Alan Francis, retired DOE/NYC, who later earned his doctorate from Harvard (1976), but who always mentions Pedro as an important influence in his career as Hispanist and jazz musician. They both were on the faculty of

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

during the seventies and performed jazz and poetry there. From 1966-73, he was the literary advisor to the University Press and director of the Letras de América collection. In 1972, he moved to the United States and taught at

in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature. In 1994, he became an emeritus professor there. Lastra's works have been translated into

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

(by

Elias Rivers Elias is the Greek equivalent of Elijah ( he, אֵלִיָּהוּ‎ ''ʾĒlīyyāhū''; Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ ''Eliyā''; Arabic: الیاس Ilyās/Elyās), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy ...

) and into

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Juan Maria Solare ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, ...

put music to eleven of his poems.

Bibliography

Poetry

*Traslado a la mañana (1959) *Y éramos inmortales (1969, 1974) *Cuaderno de la doble vida (1984) *Diario de viaje y otros poemas (1998) *Canción del pasajero (2001) *Palabras de amor (2002).

Prose

*Conversaciones con Enrique Lihn (1980, 1990) *Relecturas hispanoamericanas (1987) *Invitación a la lectura (2001) *Leido y anotado: Letras chilenas e hispanoamercianas (2002).

References

Biography, University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections Department
1932 births Living people Chilean male poets People from Quillota Stony Brook University faculty 20th-century Chilean poets 20th-century Chilean male writers 21st-century Chilean poets 21st-century Chilean male writers {{Chile-poet-stub