Cheuse Center 2025 Writer-in-Residence from Spain, Marta Sanz, on her first visit to Washington, D.C., threw herself into the things she likes best: walking, and meeting students, fellow authors and translators, and new fans. Sanz is part of an annual collaboration with Spain Arts and Culture in DC, where the Spanish Cultural Office and Embassy work with translators of Spanish writers and the writers themselves to showcase Spanish literature in America.
The Madrid-based Sanz hoofed her way from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building, finding special inspiration in the Lincoln Memorial Gettysburg Address and the Martin Luther King Memorial quote about the arch of the moral universe bending towards justice. After a visit to the Spanish Cultural Center in Columbia Heights, she happened upon a statue of Joan of Arc, a poetic coincidence for this fearless feminist poet, novelist and social critic. At the Library of Congress, she was recorded reading from several of her cornerstone works for the Library’s Palabra Archive. And she worked multiple book presentations of her first book to be translated into English, ’My Clavicle’, most importantly the Cheuse Center’s International Festival of Writers, Day of Translation events at Busboys & Poets and at George Mason University. As Marta’s translator for ‘My Clavicle’, it was a privilege to accompany her on this journey made possible by the Cheuse Center. She was also accompanied at her events by masterful interpreter, Magdalena Navarro, who we were grateful for. Marta's most enduring memory, she said, was the warmth and enthusiasm with which she was received.
October 17, 2025