Sheridan Povedano publishes poetry book in GCS writing initiative

After a year-long effort under the Gibraltar Cultural Services’ Young Writing Initiative and Mentorship Programme, Sheridan Povedano launched her poetry book this week at BookGem.

Miss Povedano was selected for the intiative which aims to cultivate young talent within the literary field and created a poetry collection called ‘Tepatoa and Olathe’ of over 60 poems.

The name of the book is fictional as her poems are anchored in fiction and follows a female character traversing Gibraltar, narrating their experiences and the places they remember.

Miss Povedano began writing poetry at 14 years old and continued the practice at university.

“Poetry is my thing really, so I went for it,” she said.

“I found ‘Tepatoa’ and I found words and they all sounded very poetic to me so I continued it and that's what I did, that's how I strived with the idea.”

Miss Povedano was mentored by Melissa Bosano who supported her decision to write poetry and met with her monthly.

“[Melissa] was always mentoring me throughout with what was best for me, and she always had me at the forefront, which was brilliant,” Miss Povedano said.

“She went through my poems, she wrote the introduction to my poems, and she was super supportive and very critical on what I could do to improve my writing and the meaning behind it and she was very supportive and helpful.”

GCS Chief Cultural Officer Seamus Byrne opened the book launch, describing how GCS has worked with Jared Cruz and Kelvin Llambias in the past and now with Miss Povedano.

“Sheridan's work is a brilliant example of what can emerge when opportunities are provided to young people to develop their creative ideas and instincts,” Mr Byrne said.

“We're here to nurture both emerging and established voices and you can see our work that we do on behalf of the Government of Gibraltar, whether it's through the Gibraltar Literary Festival, book launches, book reads and the public library itself, all playing a vital role in ensuring that Gibraltarian writers are encouraged not only to engage with literature but also to actively contribute to it.”

“At GCS we're very proud to support young writers and to support on this occasion Sheridan and I take this opportunity to thank Sheridan for this thoughtful collection and many congratulations on this book.”

The Minister for Culture Christian Santos thanked Mr Byrne and the team at GCS for this intiative.

“It's fantastic to be able to continue supporting young writers and anyone who wants to venture into anything in the arts,” Mr Santos said.

“I'm very proud of the work that we're doing, the work that GCS does and the work that the community does to support the arts as a whole.”

“The arts and culture only exist because they get support from the community and culture is what really, truly gives us an identity as Gibraltarians.”

“I'd like to congratulate Sheridan on writing a book and completing any project.”

Miss Povedano thanked GCS, her mentor Ms Bosano and all those who attended the launch.

She told attendees she was inspired by the domesticity of life.

“The world outside that has served as inspiration for my book of poems, ‘Tepatoa and Olathe’, places in Gibraltar that I would frequent that now live in my memory,” Miss Povedano said.

Miss Povedano signed copies of the book during the launch. The poetry collection ‘Tepatoa and Olathe’ is available at BookGem.