Video: Julián Delgado Lopera | The Poetry of Everyday Language

In a captivating, poetic ode to the beauty and strength of mixed languages, writer Julián Delgado Lopera paints a picture of immigrant and queer communities united not by their refinement of language but by the creative inventions that spring from their mouths. They invite everyone to reconsider what “proper” English sounds like – and imagine a blended future where those on the margins are able to speak freely.

Julián Delgado Lopera is the author of The New York Times acclaimed novel Fiebre Tropical. They are the 2021 winner of the Ferro Grumley Award and a Lambda Literary award, and a finalist of the 2020 Kirkus Prize in Fiction and the 2021 Aspen Literary Prize. Their earlier book, ¡Cuéntamelo!, is an illustrated bilingual collection of oral histories by LGBTQ+ Latinx immigrants and won a Lambda Literary Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award in 2018. They have received fellowships from The Black Mountain Institute, Hedgebrook, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, Headlands Center for The Arts, Brush Creek Foundation of the Arts, Lambda Literary Foundation and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and their work has appeared in Granta, Teen Vogue, The Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, The White Review, LALT, Four Way Reviewand elsewhere. They are the former executive director of RADAR Productions and one of the founders of Drag Queen Story Hour. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Lopera currently resides in San Francisco.

Running time: 14 minutes

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