Adam Feinstein

Thursday 26 September 2013, 6.00-7.30pm, Birkbeck, University of London, Torrington Sq., Main building, Room 538

Two of the great cultural giants of the twentieth century, Pablo Neruda and Pablo Picasso, shared not only a first name but a close friendship which enriched their lives and their work.  On this, the fortieth anniversary of the deaths of both Neruda and Picasso in 1973, Neruda’s UK biographer, Adam Feinstein, will explore this exhilarating relationship and also examine the two men’s different approaches to their art.

Adam Feinstein is a writer, journalist, poet and translator. His biography, Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life, was first published by Bloomsbury in 2004 to worldwide acclaim from, among others, Harold Pinter and Andrew Motion. It is being re-published by Bloomsbury in 2013 in an updated edition to include the exhumation of Neruda’s body on April 8 this year in an attempt to investigate claims that the poet may have been poisoned. Feinstein has translated from the work of many Spanish and Latin American poets, including Federico García Lorca and Mario Benedetti. He writes on Spanish and Latin American cultural and political affairs, as well as autism, for many publications around the world and also broadcasts on these subjects for the BBC.  His latest book – his translations from Neruda’s Canto General, illustrated with original prints by the Brazilian artist, Ana Maria Pacheco – will be published in 2013. He is currently working on a collection of translations from the Spanish poet, Félix Grande, and a book about cultural policy in Cuba since the Revolution.