Voted the most relevant Spanish-language poet born since 1970 by a panel of nearly two hundred critics and university researchers, Fernando Valverde has received some of the most significant awards for poetry in Spanish, among them the Federico García Lorca, the Emilio Alarcos del Principado de Asturias and the Antonio Machado. For 10 years, he worked as a journalist for the Spanish newspaper El País as he built his reputation as a young poet.

His critically acclaimed work — including two recent books on the last days of the Romantic poets John Keats, Percy B. Shelley and Lord Byron, published in Mexico and Spain — have been published in various European countries and in North America. His last book, The Insistence of Harm, topped the poetry bestsellers list in Spain for months and received the Book of the Year Award from the City University of New York’s Latino American Writers Institute.

Valverde’s other awards include a 2014 Latin Grammy nomination for the lyrics he wrote for a collaborative work of fusion between poetry and flamenco with singer Juan Pinilla titled “Jugar con Fuego.” He is currently finishing a new book of poetry, scheduled for release this fall by the Spanish publisher Visor.

The director of the College’s Distinguished Spanish Major program, Valverde is teaching two semesters this fall, “Spanish Romantic Poetry and Europe” and “Global Spanish-Language Poetry.”