Right to Write: Leo Zelada

Leo Zelada is the literary pseudonym of Braulio Rubén Tupaj Amaru Grajeda Fuentes, poet and writer. He studied philosophy at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Peru). He was the founder of the Néon poetry group. From 1983 to 1997, he traveled from Lima to Los Angeles by public transport and on foot, crossing the Andes, the Amazon, the Darien jungle, the Caribbean and Chiapas. He has published the poetry books Delirium Tremens, A Cyberpunk's diary, Nosferatu's opuscule at the Dawn, The dragon's Path, Minimal Poetics and Transpoétique, as well as two novels, American Death of Life and El Último Nómada. His work has been translated into English, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Greek, Arabic and other languages. He has won several literary prizes, amongst which the Poets of Other Worlds Prize, awarded by the International Poetic Fund of Spain in 2016. Two documentaries have been made about him: the first in 2013 and the second in 2021.

 

In 2022, his book Transpoétique was translated into French and presented at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine in Paris. In 2024, his second book was published in French: La Traversée de l'Innommable, which he presented and signed at the Maison de l'Amérique Latine and the Marché de la Poésie in Paris, and several of whose poems were featured in the prestigious contemporary art magazine Souffle Inédit. He has a blog, Dragon's Journal, with over 300,000 views.