Aquí era el paraíso / Here Was Paradise

Humberto Ak’abal was born in the Maya K’iche’ village Momostenango in Guatemala in 1952. He worked as a blanket weaver (one of the activities for which Momostenango is renowned,) a shepherd, a sweeper, then a garment maker in a maquila in Guatemala City. When he was thirty-eight, he published his first book of poetry. Ak’abal is famous worldwide as one of the great contemporary poets in the Spanish language, and one of the greatest Indigenous poets of the Americas, having written over twenty-five books. He died in January 2019, leaving his widow, Mayulí Bieri, and son Nakil Ak’abal Bieri.Amelia Lau Carling was born and brought up in Guatemala. Her parents’ store sold the thread used by many Maya weavers in their extraordinary work. She was, therefore, in constant contact with Maya culture and creators from an early age. She is the author-illustrator of the celebrated books Alfombras de Aserrín(Sawdust Carpets) and La tienda de Mamá y Papá (Mama and Papa Have a Store) — winner of the Américas Award and the Pura Belpré Award for Illustration— and the illustrator of numerous other books. Though she now lives in the United States, she returns to Guatemala frequently.Patricia Aldana was born and brought up in Guatemala. She came to Canada as an adult and founded Groundwood Books, of which she was the publisher for thirty-five years.Hugh Hazelton is a Montreal writer and translator. He has written four books of poetry and translated over twenty works of fiction and poetry from Spanish, French and Portuguese into English. His translation of Vétiver, a book of poems by Joël Des Rosiers, won the Governor General’s Award. He is a professor emeritus of Spanish at Concordia University in Montreal and past co-director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. He was awarded the Linda Gaboriau Prize for his work on behalf of literary translation in Canada.