Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
‘I experience the orphanage of language…’
LEO BOIX talks to Angus Reid about exile, language and the irony of the title of his first collection of poems written in English, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant
Leo Boix

LEO BOIX, who contributes a regular column to the Star on new Latin American literature, reveals the playful and unique sensibility of the LatinX migrant in his first English language collection of poetry, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant.

His two previous collections were in Spanish; for this one he has attempted something that few poets dare and even fewer achieve — to write in an adopted language.

As an activist for the LatinX community, a translator and a teacher, Boix is an ambassador between cultures. As a poet he is even more generous: he gives us access to the complex inner life of the immigrant.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
lesbians
Books / 17 July 2026
17 July 2026

DIANE WATT argues that while evidence of sex is not there, a 16th‑century lesbian poet could be Scotland’s answer to Gentleman Jack

Pic: Free Clip Art/CC
Literature / 14 July 2026
14 July 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction

lighthouse
Poetry / 7 July 2026
7 July 2026

ALAN MORRISON welcomes a new collection from the most imaginative and committed ecopoet of our time

boix
Literature / 22 June 2026
22 June 2026

From post-human revolution in Puerto Rico to trans poetics and queer mythmaking, these three books that imagine new ways of being together