World Poetry Day 2025
Grand Poetry Reading Marathon of Granada’s Poets
Auditorium of the Federico García Lorca Center
Friday, March 21st, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Free entry until full capacity is reached
Due to rain, the planned reading at the Hospital Real has been canceled. Instead, nearly a hundred participating poets will gather in a single venue — the Centro Federico García Lorca — for what promises to be a grand literary celebration, marking the start of Granada’s poetic spring.
2025 Programme
Opening
Palacio de los Córdova, 12 PM
Speakers: Marifrán Carazo (Mayor of Granada), Margarita Sánchez Romero (Vice-Rector for University Extension, Heritage, and Institutional Relations). Group photo with all participating poets in the garden of the Palacio de los Córdova. Poetry readings by first-year high school students from Colegio Ave María Casa Madre (Cuesta del Chapiz), featuring poems by Federico García Lorca, Mariluz Escribano Pueo, Rafael Guillén, and María Elena Martín Vivaldi.
Main Event : A Single Space for the Readings
Due to weather conditions, the Grand Poetry Reading Marathon will now take place in a single venue — the Auditorium of the Federico García Lorca Center — from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. The event is open to the entire city of Granada, and attendees can drop in at any time to see their favorite poets or discover new voices.
Each poet will read one poem, with readings organized alphabetically. The invited poets, all residents of Granada, have published at least one book and represent a diverse range of ages, styles, and literary approaches. This is a celebration of live poetry reading and a grand gathering of poets and readers alike.
Participating Poets in 2025
Raúl ALONSO / Rosaura ÁLVAREZ / Jesús AMAYA / Miguel Ángel ANGULO / Leira ARAÚJO / Miguel Ángel ARCAS / Teresa ARIZA / María ARNEDO / Miguel Ángel BARRERA MATURANA / María Ángeles BARRIONUEVO / Víctor BAYONA / Rosa BERBEL / Marga BLANCO / Javier BENÍTEZ LAÍNEZ / Isabel BERMEJO / Javier BOZALONGO / Rafael CALERO PALMA / Lola CALLEJÓN / Carmen CANET / Virgilio CARA / Mamen CARILLA / Joaquín CARMONA / Eduardo CASTRO / Olalla CASTRO / Valentina COLONNA / Miguel Ángel CONTRERAS / Nieves CHILLÓN / Alicia CHOIN MALAGÓN / Dori DELGADO / Jorge DÍAZ / Taimi DIEGUEZ / Mónica DOÑA / Khali ELTINAÉ / Pedro ENRÍQUEZ / Pura FERNÁNDEZ / Mónica FRANCÉS / Guillermo GARCÍA DOMINGO / Rosa GAMERO / Trinidad GAN / José GANIVET / Jairo GARCÍA JARAMILLO / José Miguel GÓMEZ ACOSTA / Azucena G. BLANCO / Miguel GONZÁLEZ DENGRA / Ioana GRUIA / Katia -Sofía HAKIM / Markel HERNÁNDEZ / Carmen HERNÁNDEZ MONTALBÁN / María Elena HIGUERUELO / Ángela HURTADO AYALA / Juanjo IBÁÑEZ / Víctor JIMÉNEZ JÓDAR / Fernando LÓPEZ CASTELLANO / José Miguel LÓPEZ HIDALGO / Alfredo LOMBARDO / Mariano LOZANO / Alberto MAQUEDA / Sergio MAYOR / Luis MELGAREJO / Laura MONTES / Ángeles MORA / Gracia MORALES / Rosa MORILLAS / Andrés NEUMAN / Luis Pablo NÚÑEZ / Valentín NÚÑEZ / Rosa ORTEGA / Juan Javier ORTIGOSA / Juan PEREGRINA / Aixa RAVA / Gerardo RODRÍGUEZ SALAS / Diego ROEL / José Carlos ROSALES / Alfonso SALAZAR / Gabriel SALGUERO / Álvaro SALVADOR / Sara TORO / Gerardo VENTEO / José Luis VICARIO / Sebastián WALDO /
International Press Release on the Activities of the UNESCO Cities of Literature for World Poetry Day
A bit of history
In 1999, UNESCO proclaimed March 21st as World Poetry Day in Paris. The goal of this day is to promote the teaching of poetry, revive the oral tradition of poetry recitals, support small publishers, and create an appealing image of poetry in the media — not as an outdated art form but as a powerful means of expression that allows communities to transmit their values and reaffirm their identities. It also seeks to restore the dialogue between poetry and other artistic expressions such as theater, dance, music, and painting.
Granada joins the celebration
On March 21st, 2017, Granada’s City Council, through the Granada UNESCO City of Literature program and with the collaboration of the Asociación del Diente de Oro, joined World Poetry Day for the first time. The event featured a large public poetry reading involving 18 local bookstores and 44 poets living in Granada, including three National Poetry Prize winners: Rafael Guillén, Ángeles Mora, and Luis García Montero. The bookstores welcomed the readings enthusiastically, and the poets participated with great generosity. The event was an unexpected success, with crowds filling every reading space, turning the celebration into a true citywide festival.
…and the Cities of Literature / Impact
The success of that first experiment led to two key outcomes:
- Granada decided to make the World Poetry Day celebration an annual event, officially part of the UNESCO City of Literature program.
- The international network of UNESCO Cities of Literature adopted the event.
Granada presented the idea of an annual World Poetry Day celebration at the UNESCO Cities of Literature meeting in Barcelona in April 2017. The proposal was warmly welcomed, and by 2018, many cities joined, organizing their own events locally while connecting their celebrations globally through social media and a shared communication strategy — transforming World Poetry Day into an international project.
Each year, Granada designs an open-source event poster, created in recent years by Jacinto Gutiérrez, which UNESCO Cities can adapt for their own celebrations. A joint press release is also prepared, and the cities’ events are unified under one collective narrative.
The spring equinox has now become another key date in Granada’s rich literary calendar, kicking off an especially vibrant season for the city’s literary life. This includes regular activities hosted by public and private institutions, as well as major events like the Federico García Lorca Granada International Poetry Prize Ceremony, the Granada International Poetry Festival (FIP), and the Granada Book Fair.
The University of Granada joins in
Since 2021, the University of Granada — particularly through the Literature Department at La Madraza (Vice-Rectorate for University Extension, Heritage, and Institutional Relations) — has become a key partner in the World Poetry Day celebrations. UGR spaces like the Botanical Garden and Casa de Porras have hosted events.
For 2025, the university planned to include the Patio de los Inocentes at the Royal Hospital as a venue, organized by the Heritage Department. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions, this reading has been moved to the Federico García Lorca Center.
Our Goals
Through World Poetry Day, we aim to:
- Strengthen and unite the local literary community.
- Promote our authors, especially young and emerging voices.
- Encourage the tradition of public poetry readings.
- Connect our authors with the public.
- Link Granada to the best international cultural practices.
- Reinforce Granada’s image as a vibrant cultural city.
Other Events: Poetry Slam Granada at the Centre for Modern Languages
With an 11-year tradition, Poetry Slam Granada is one of the longest-running and most influential slam venues in Spain, having hosted revolutionary poets like Gata Cattana, Sergio Escribano, Laura Sam, and Escandar Algeet.
As in previous years, Poetry Slam Granada hosted a special prelude to World Poetry Day at the Center for Modern Languages on Saturday, March 16th, at 12:00 PM. This year’s guest artist was Madrid poet Andrea Pinacho.
