Local poet’s work studied and discussed in US University

The poetry of Gibraltarian writer Giordano Durante has featured as a set text in the ‘British Literature’ course offered to students at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Michigan, U.S.

Students studied poems about Gibraltar and London from Mr Durante’s 2017 collection ‘West’.

They also had an opportunity to hear the poet speak about his work and ask him questions during a two-hour long Zoom session held on Monday 22nd April at the invitation of fellow Gibraltarian David Alvarez who is a Professor at GVSU’s Department of English Language and Literature.

Mr Durante spoke in detail about his poem ‘Alameda Interlude’ which he describes as a “multi-layered, historically pregnant snapshot of the Alameda Gardens”.

His line-by-line analysis reflected on Gibraltar’s languages and postcolonial status. He also spoke about how he started writing poems back in 2016 and answered questions about his creative practice.

Mr Durante said: “It was wonderful to learn that my poems are being studied across the Atlantic and I was deeply impressed by the students’ perceptive questions and comments. I particularly enjoyed providing students with the context in which the poems were written and their local references.”

“I am very grateful for their interest and for Professor Alvarez’s invitation to speak to them in depth about my work.”

Professor David Alvarez commented: “I last taught a module on modern and contemporary British and postcolonial Anglophone writing 25 years ago. There wasn’t much Gibraltarian literature back then.”

“These days, of course, the situation is very different, so when I was offered the opportunity to teach the module again, I immediately thought of concluding it with a close look at Giordano Durante’s first book of poems, which beautifully encapsulates the module’s themes.”

“Luckily, Giordano was available to meet with my students via Zoom, and they were delighted to meet the author of the poetry we’d just studied. The conversation between them was one of the richest I’ve ever presided over in my long career as a university lecturer.”