Lena Retamoso Urbano
Visiting Faculty
A poet and a scholar of contemporary Latin American Literature and Culture, Retamoso Urbano's research includes 20th and 21st century Latin American and Spanish poetry, Transnational surrealism, 20th century Latin American narrative, intertextuality, Queer theory, Latin American Avant-Garde movements, Peruvian poetry, the Generation of ‘27, Transatlantic studies, Modern fiction and poetics, the Poetics of Eros, and Literary and Artistic connections between Latin America and the US.
Biography
Retamoso Urbano holds a PhD in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures from The Graduate Center of New York, CUNY. She has published academic articles on the works of Tirso de Molina, Garcilaso de la Vega, César Moro, Blanca Varela, Jorge Eduardo Eielson, César Vallejo, and Luis Cernuda. In parallel to her scholarly research, she has published three volumes of poetry, Luz de escombros (Light of Debris) (2023), Milagros de ausencia (Miracles of Absence) (2002, 2022) and Blanco es el sueño de la noche (Blank is the Dream of the Night) (2008). Her poetry and short stories have also been published in literary journals in the USA, Peru, Brazil, Spain, and France such as Pomona Valley Review, Corresponding Voices and Cuadernos Literarios. Her monograph Sacralizar lo efímero: La configuración del amante y el amado en Luis Cernuda y César Moro (Sacralizing the Ephemeral: The configuration of the Lover and the Beloved in Luis Cernuda and César Moro) is currently under contract with Vernon Press. Her articles on Latin American and Spanish poetry and prose have appeared in Latin American Literary Review, Taller Igitur, LL Journal, Boletín de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (BANLE) and Cuadernos de ALDEUU (Asociación de Licenciados y Doctores Españoles en Estados Unidos), among others.
Retamoso Urbano has been a visiting faculty member at Bennington since Fall 2021.