Pinholes in the Night: Essential Poems from Latin America (Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute Poets in the World) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155659450X ISBN 13: 9781556594502

Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, 2014

Synopsis

"[A] well-defined, important primer on Latin American poetics."—Booklist

"When we read a book we put it in front of our eyes, not behind them, which is to say, more or less, that we open ourselves to a dimension of our future."—Raśl Zurita, from the introduction

This intensely focused bilingual anthology pinpoints the heart of Latin American self-identification. In selecting these fifteen essential poems, Chilean poet Raśl Zurita was guided by the question, "What poem, had it not been written, would have rendered the author another author and Latin American poetry something else?" This extraordinary gathering of talent—from Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda to Ernesto Cardenal and César Vallejo—spans the twentieth century.

From "The Heights of Macchu Picchu":

How many times in the wintry streets of a city or ina bus or a boat at dusk, or in the deepest loneliness, a night of revelry beneath the soundof shadows and bells, in the very grotto of human pleasureI've tried to stop and seek the eternal unfathomable lodethat I touched before on stone or in the lightning unleashed by a kiss . . .

Raśl Zurita, winner of the Chilean National Prize for Literature, survived arrest and torture during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. He co-founded CADA (Colectivo de acción de arte), and has created huge poetic art pieces, including poems carved into cliffs that can only be read from the sky.

Forrest Gander is a poet, translator, and professor at Brown University. His books have been named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award.

About this title

About the Author

Raul Zurita: Raśl Zurita, winner of the Chilean National Prize for Literature, survived arrest and torture during Pinochet’s dictatorship. He co-founded CADA (Colectivo de acción de arte), and has created huge poetic art pieces, including poems carved into cliffs that can only be read from the sky.

Forrest Gander: Forrest Gander is a poet, translator, and professor at Brown University. His many honors include the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative North American Poetry and a Guggenheim Fellowship; his books have been named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Edition details

• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 155659450X
• ISBN 13: 9781556594502
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 374
• Editor: Gander Forrest