Grounded in the literary arts, Lugar Comun builds cultural bridges through diverse experiences and books for all ages. We strongly believe that Cultural exchange is crucial for mutual recognition and social change. Our focus on cities as expressions of identity, coexistence, conflict, and metamorphosis drives us to create a literary community based on heterogeneity and multilingual voices through our work in translation and publishing. By connecting writers and readers from different backgrounds, we create opportunities for empathy and understanding. Lugar Comun's mission is to promote cultural exchange through the powerful tool of words.
ABOUT
Lugar Comun is an organization founded by Venezuelan immigrants working for more than ten years as literary and other art expression supporters. In Caracas, Lugar Comun started as a local independent bookstore and strongly became a solid mesh of cultural spaces that actioned beyond books and could concentrate more than 1500 free activities during the five years of functioning. Starting in 2017, we held a Poetry Prize that became one of the most important in the country. In 2018 the founders were forced to leave the country, and the project came to Miami. But the mission is the same: to create platforms of dialogue and understanding through literature.
For our organization, migration is a source of social enrichment, and collaboration with artists of different origins generates cultural exchange and strong bonds based on comprehension between various communities.
PROJECTS
In 2020 Alliteration Publishing House was created as a project to respond to the necessity of bonding the organization with a new community in a new city. With a short statement, we have been publishing works based on cities as vivid expressions of identity, coexistence, conflicts, and metamorphosis. As an initiative born in the multicultural and multilingual Miami Beach, Alliteration invites readers to construct and traverse bridges of meaning, acceptance, and understanding. We publish and promote authors representing different languages, migration processes, and sensibilities.
Our catalog emphasizes poetry. We have published eleven titles, nine of which are poetry collections in bilingual editions. All our authors identify as BIPOC and are solid voices constructed from and with minorities' realities and concerns.
The editorial is preparing to launch a children's collection promoting values for a better future in the midterm plans.
LUGAR COMUN POETRY AWARD
In December 2022, we'd announce the fifth edition of Concurso de PoesÃa Lugar Comun. The award looks to promote the careers of non-established writers. We created for writers worldwide who write in Spanish and have published up to two poetry titles. The winning work will hold a cash prize of $1500, and the poetry collection will be part of Alliteration's catalog in Spanish, English, and Italian to empower the new Hispanic voice.
Our most recent edition received 601 submissions from 31 countries.
