The Cervantes Institute in Athens will, next Tuesday, September 8, is organizing the Mediterranean Poetry Festival once again this year, featuring six distinguished poets—four Spanish and two Greek—on the terrace of the Cervantes Institute in Kolonaki, in central Athens. The event, with free admission (subject to availability), will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will offer the public a tangible sample of contemporary poetic creation on both shores of the Mediterranean.

A Festival That Travels the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean Poetry Festival is an initiative of the Cervantes Institute that takes place in various cities across the Mediterranean to promote contemporary Spanish poetry in its various languages. The goal is to foster communication and dialogue with poets, translators, and artists from the Mediterranean, thereby building bridges between the different poetic traditions that coexist along the shores of our shared sea.

The event follows the successful 2025 edition, which received an enthusiastic response from the public on the terrace of the Cervantes. The festival thus renews its commitment as a multilingual meeting place, bringing together acclaimed poets, experts, and artists for an evening dedicated to linguistic richness and cultural exchange.

Spain’s Linguistic Diversity in One Evening

This year’s event highlights with particular emphasis one of the festival’s defining features: the linguistic diversity of Spanish literature. Alongside the Spanish (Castilian) of Juan Carlos Abril, the terrace will resound with the Catalan of Mireia Calafell, the Galician of Ledicia Costas, and the Asturian of Inaciu Galán. Four traditions that coexist within the same country and are rarely heard together outside its borders.

Alongside them, two Greek voices from different backgrounds and generations—Iphigenia Doumi and Stamatis Polenakis—round out the other side of the dialogue. This encounter does not arise out of nowhere: Polenakis has lived in Spain, and Doumi regularly translates from Spanish; thus, the bridge between the two traditions is already etched into their very work.

The evening will highlight the cultural ties, images, and shared lived and emotional experiences of the Mediterranean, with poetry readings in the original language and its translation (Greek and Spanish, Galician, Catalan, Asturian) on the welcoming terrace of the Instituto Cervantes, located in the heart of Athens in Kolonaki.

In the Participation of

Juan Carlos Abril (Los Villares, Jaén, 1974): Professor of Literature Pedagogy at the University of Granada, poet, essayist, translator, and literary critic. His poetic work, collected in the volume Poesía reunida (1997–2023), has been published in various Latin American countries. He has translated authors such as Pasolini and Henri Michaux and is the author of essays that serve as a point of reference for contemporary poetry. He is the editor of the magazine Paraíso.

Mireia Calafell: Poet and co-director of the cultural production company La Sullivan. She has published books such as Poètiques del cos, Costures, Tantes mudes, Nosaltres, qui, and Si una emergència, which have been honored with awards such as the Lletra d’Or, the Mallorca Poetry Prize, and the Carles Riba Prize. She has also co-directed the Poesia i més and Barcelona Poesia festivals, establishing a significant track record in creating and directing major cultural events.

Ledicia Costas (Vigo, 1979): One of the most acclaimed and widely translated authors in Galician literature. She has published nearly forty works of prose and poetry in Galician and Spanish, aimed at children, young adults, and adults alike. Among her numerous awards, the State Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature for Escarlatina, la cocinera cadáver, the Castelao Medal, and the 2025 El Barco de Vapor Prize for Feriópolis stand out.

Iphigenia Doumi: Poet and translator. She studied English Literature, Drama, and Literary Translation. She has translated English- and Spanish-language authors and poets. She has published two collections of poetry, Love Me Tender (Sexpirikon, 2018) and I Like Everything (Kastaniotis, 2022—shortlisted for the Chartis magazine poetry prize and the Thessaloniki Writers’ Society poetry prize).

Inaciu Galán (Gijón, Asturias, 1986): Journalist, documentary filmmaker, publisher, cultural manager, and member of the Academy of the Asturian Language (Academia de la Llingua Asturiana). He holds a Ph.D. in Humanities from the University of Oviedo, has published approximately fifteen books in Asturian, and has received numerous awards, several of which are for poetry. He founded the journal Formientu and the Gijón Literary Residence (Residencia Lliteraria Xixón), and he directs projects promoting the language and culture through Cuatro Gotes Producciones.

Stamatis Polenakis (Athens, Greece, 1970): He studied film directing in Athens and lived in Spain and Ireland. He has published eight poetry collections and the novel The Struggle with the Angel. In 2017, she was awarded the State Prize for Poetry and the prize from the magazine O Anagnostis for her poetry collection The Roses of Mercedes (Mikri Arktos Publications, 2016).

Useful Information

Date and Time: Tuesday 8 September 2026, 19:30

Venue : Institut Cervantes Athens Roof, Skoufa 31, Kolonaki, 10673 Athens

Admission: Free

Languages: [Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Asturian, and Greek]