José Enrique Delmonte, Shira Zohara Dickey, Rhina P. Espaillat and Juan Matos

December 5, 2025, 7 pm, Grolier Poetry Book Shop, 6 Plympton St, Cambridge

The NEPC is honored to co-present this evening of poems by José Enrique Delmonte, Shira Zohara Dickey, Rhina P. Espaillat, and Juan Matos with the Grolier Poetry Book Shop. Leonardo Nin will introduce the poets.

The event will take place synchronously in-store at 6 Plympton Street, Cambridge, and on Zoom. Please note that registration is required. Use this link to register for the in-store reading, and this link for the virtual reading. For the in-store reading, note that space is limited, and if you arrive after the start time, you may jeopardize your seat.

José Enrique Delmonte (1964, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic). Poet, essayist, historian, PhD in linguistics and literature, and architect. He has received several literary awards, including the 2014 Poetry Prize from the Universidad Iberoeramericana, the Ibero-American Poetry Prize at the 2014 Madrid Book Fair; the 2016 León Felipe International Poetry Prize (Zamora, Spain); and the 2024 Editorial Project Award from Sial Pigmalión Publishing House, Madrid, Spain. He has published the poetry collections Alquimias de la ciudad perdida (Alchemies of the Lost City), Once palabras que mueve tu mundo (Eleven Words That Move Your World), La redondez de lo posible (Roundness of the Possible), Habitantes del tedio (Inhabitants of Tedium), and La palabra más larga (The Longest Word). José Enrique is a member of the Organizing Committee of the Santo Domingo International Poetry Week. His poetry has been translated into English and French.

Shira Zohara Dickey is a US-born architectural historian, author, lecturer, and former academic society director. She also translates and writes poetry and makes fine art. Fluent in multiple languages, with reading proficiency in others, she has translated two Spanish poetry books by the renowned Santo Domingo poet, essayist, and architect, José Enrique Delmonte, into English. Shira’s forthcoming projects include publications in architectural history, a translation of another poetry collection by Delmonte, and a chapbook with her illustrations dedicated to memories of her loving companion, deceased MIT atmospheric physicist, Ralph J. Markson. Shira Zohara enjoys being a Massachusetts Cantabrigian and sharing her home with her Berger Blanc Suisse.

Dominican-born Rhina P. Espaillat has published twenty-four full-length books, four chapbooks, and two CDs comprising her own poetry collections, essays and short stories in both English and her native Spanish, as well as numerous translations, from and into both languages, of work by other authors. Her work appears in numerous anthologies, journals, and websites, and has received many national and international awards. Among the countless other authors whose poetry she has also translated are Robert Frost, Richard Wilbur, Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay, as well as San Juan de la Cruz, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Miguel Hernández, Federico García Lorca, César Sánchez Beras, Juan Matos, Julia Alvarez, José Marmol, and many others from Europe, Latin America, English speaking authors, and the large and active Caribbean diaspora in the United States.
Espaillat is a founding member of the Fresh Meadows Poets, the Powow River Poets, The Melopoeia musical Trio, and the musical quintet known as The Diminished Poets. She has earned many national and international awards, including the T. S. Eliot and Richard Wilbur Awards, several from the Poetry Society of America, the New England Poetry Club, The Robert Frost Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Dominican Republic, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Salem State College.

Juan Matos (1956). Educator and cultural activist residing in Lunenburg, MA. He migrated from the Dominican Republic in 1985. He served as Worcester Poet Laureate (2020-22); sharing and promoting poetry in community centers, schools, universities, and other institutions; and developing creative writing workshops with youth. He has written numerous poetry books; most recent are “Labrador de palabras”(2021); Con pecado concebido (2021); Temblor de espejos (2021); The Man Who Left /El hombre que se fue (2017); Sugar, Cape, and Port (2018). His works have been included in many anthologies and magazines. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo); a Master’s Degree in New York; another Master’s in Elementary School (Lehman College, NY); and another Master’s Degree in Bilingual Education (Worcester State University). Matos taught ESL & Spanish Literature for 35 years and retired from Worcester Public Schools in 2019. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Latino Educational Institute in Worcester, MA. juanmatospoeta.com