Please join us at the Swedenborg Society to celebrate the UK launch of The Child Poet by Homero Aridjis, translated from the Spanish by Chloe Aridjis. A conversation between Homero and Chloe will be moderated by writer and translator Daniel Hahn.

Told in a series of interconnected vignettes, The Child Poet provides a portrait of Aridjis in his pre-poet years, at a time when each day in his native Contepec, Michoacán formed part of a personal mythology. The work was particular of significance to translator Chloe Aridjis as it gave her insight into her father’s childhood and the beginning of his life as a poet, which would have otherwise been inaccessible.

Homero Aridjis has published over forty works of poetry and prose, including 1492: The Life and Times of Juan Cabezon of Castile. Twice elected president of International PEN, he is also considered one of Latin America’s leading environmentalists.

Chloe Aridjis has produced a collection of essays as well as two novels, including Book of Clouds in 2009, which was published in eight countries and won the Prix du Premier Roman in France.

Daniel Hahn is the author of a number of works of non-fiction, including the history book The Tower Menagerie. He is also one of the editors of The Ultimate Book Guide, a series of reading guides for children and teenagers – the first volume of which won the Blue Peter Book Award. His translation of The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007. He has also translated the work of José Luís Peixoto, Philippe Claudel, María Dueñas, José Saramago, Eduardo Halfon, Gonçalo M. Tavares and others. A former chair of the Translators Association, he is currently national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation.