Poet, translator, essayist, editor and novelist, Stephen Kessler came onto KZSC‘s Artists on Art to talk about his work, the upcoming publication of three books in 2015 and salons at Gabriella Cafe.

Stephen has published several books of poetry, and was founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sun in the 1980s. He has also been editor and/or writer at Santa Cruz Express, and more recently, Metro Santa Cruz.  He is widely known as a translator of Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges, Luis Cernuda, Fernando Alegria and the Spanish Nobel prize winner Vicente Aleixandre. He has published several volumes of poetry.

When asked how he got into translating Spanish to English, non-native Spanish speaker, Stephen talked about beginning his spanish translation career due to growing up in LA. He believes that all Californians are Mexican.

We also talked about Paul Cocking‘s salons at Gabriella Cafe, the first Tuesday of every month, with dinner at 6pm and conversation at 7pm. December 2, 2014, will feature Patrice Veccione and Wallace Baine talking about creativity. Stephen will have his salon next April 2015 to talk about his translation of Luis Cernuda’s entire works of Poetry.