Micro-workshop “More Reality. The Poetic Aphorism or Aforema,” by Miguel Ángel Arcas

On Thursday, October 3, 2024, starting at 6:30 PM, the free micro-workshop ‘More Reality. The Poetic Aphorism or Aforema,’ led by poet and editor Miguel Ángel Arcas, will take place in the Mariana Pineda Room at La Madraza Palace. A maximum of 15 participants.

Those interested can register at: talleres@granadaciudaddeliteratura.com.

This micro-workshop is part of the collaboration maintained since 2017 between Granada, UNESCO City of Literature, and the Vice-Rectorate for University Extension of the UGR, through the Literature Department of La Madraza-Center for Contemporary Culture of the UGR-Federico García Lorca Chair.

The Workshop

The workshop will have two main components.

1. A basic theoretical framework to guide participants in the genre. General characteristics, definition, and controversy surrounding the concept of aphorism and/or aforema, terminologies, and categories. The different poetics. The boundaries between brief genres: flash fiction, poetry, aphorism. 1.1. Tradition and modernity of the aphoristic genre. Other brief forms: proverbs, maxims, sayings, or micro-essays, tweets, etc. Aphorism and social media. 1.2. The writer’s workshop. The writing process, textual experience, the “method”? 1.3. Essential authors and bibliography. 1.4. Reflection and discussion.
2. Writing practices and text editing. Exercises and the creation of texts in different poetics by the participants, followed by corrections. Editing as an important and decisive part of writing. 2.1. Creation of a booklet featuring the best texts from the participants.

Miguel Ángel Arcas

The poet, aphorist, editor, and cultural manager Miguel Ángel Arcas was born in Granada in 1956. His first book of poems, Los sueños del realista (Fundación Miguel Hernández, 2000), won the National Miguel Hernández Poetry Prize in 1998. He has authored four other poetry collections: El baile (Cuadernos del Vigía, 2002), Llueve horizontal (Hiperión, 2015; XXII City of Córdoba “Ricardo Molina” Poetry Prize), Alevosía (La Isla de Siltolá, 2016), and Creta (Cuadernos del Vigía, 2021). He has also published books of aphorisms: Aforemas (Fundación José Manuel Lara, 2004), Más realidad (Pre-Textos, 2013), and Los tres pies del gato (Trea, 2019), as well as a memoir diary Cuaderno de Choisy (Fórcola, 2021).

In 2005-2006, 2008, 2009, and 2010, he created, directed, and published the collection Relatos para leer en el autobús, as well as the reader engagement project of the same name, which distributed tens of thousands of short stories for free on the urban buses of Granada, Málaga, and Córdoba. This project was awarded the Silver CAL Award for Reading Promotion by the Ministry of Culture of the Andalusian Regional Government.

In 2008 and 2009, he was the coordinator of the Granada Book Fair.

Since 1999, he has been the director of the Cuadernos del Vigía publishing house.