Rioplatense Poetry in translation
Jesse Kercheval reading Circe Maia's The Invisible Bridge / El Puente Invisible (Uruguay) (University of Pittsburg Press)
Yvette Siegert reading Alejandra Pizarnik's Extracting the Stones of Madness, Poems 1962-1972 (Argentina) (New Directions, forthcoming)
Mark Statman reading Martín Barea Matos Never Made in America: Selected Poems in Translation (Uruguay) (Lavender Ink, forthcoming)
The Invisible Bridge / El Puente Invisible
Selected Poems of Circe Maia
Maia, Circe, Kercheval, Jesse Lee
A bilingual collection, The Invisible Bridge / El Puente Invisible brings together many of the luminous, deeply philosophical poems of Circe Maia, one of the few living poets left of the generation which brought Latin American writing to world prominence.
Circe Maia is a Uruguayan poet, essayist, translator, and teacher of philosophy. She is the author of eleven poetry collections, including Superficies, Breve Sol, and Dualidades. She has received the Medalla Delmira Agustini, 2013; the Premio Bartolomé Hidalgo, 2010; the Premio Nacional de Poesía de Uruguay, 2007; and the 2015 Grand National Prize for Intellectual Work from Uruguay’s Ministry of Culture and Education.
Jesse Lee Kercheval is a poet, novelist, and translator. She is the author of thirteen books including the poetry collections Extranjera and Dog Angel, and editor of the forthcoming América invertida: An Anthology of Younger Uruguayan Poets. She is the Zona Gale Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“These superb translations by Jesse Lee Kercheval are faithful to the clarity and wisdom of the celebrated Uruguayan poet Circe Maia. Walk across The Invisible Bridge/ El Puente Invisible and you too will enter the graceful light Maia has been casting for decades over the troubled yet blessed landscapes of Latin America.” —Rigoberto Gonzalez
“The world in its raging, rich variety fills these poems, overflowing into vivid images that root Maia’s political and social attention firmly in the real scenes and objects all around us. Her eye is unfailing—both generous and demanding—and her language does indeed build bridges, establishing solid but surprising connections between ideas and things. Kercheval’s masterful translations create yet another bridge, bringing Maia’s poetic vision across into English with an astonishingly beautiful music.”—Cole Swenson
Praise for Circe Maia’s La Pesadora de Perlas
“This book helps to repair an injustice. It is unfair, very unfair that so many connoisseurs of the best poetry have not yet discovered Circe Maia. The revelation will be a high joy. I envy them that magical moment. It is one that will last.”—Eduardo Galeano
Extracting the Stone of Madness Poems 1962–1972
Poetry by Alejandra Pizarnik
translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert
Revered by Octavio Paz and Roberto Bolaño, Alejandra Pizarnik is still a hidden treasure in the U.S. Extracting the Stone of Madness comprises all of her middle to late work, as well as a selection of posthumously published verse. Obsessed with themes of solitude, childhood, madness, and death, Pizarnik explored the shifting valences of the self and the border between speech and silence. In her own words, she was drawn to “the suffering of Baudelaire, the suicide of Nerval, the premature silence of Rimbaud, the mysterious and fleet- ing presence of Lautréamont,” and to the “unparalleled intensity” of Artaud’s “physical and moral suffering.”
Yvette Siegert is a poet and translator based in New York. She has edited for The New Yorker and has taught at Columbia University, Baruch College and the 92nd Street Y. Her writing has appeared in many publications, most recently in Aufgabe,Boston Review, St. Petersburg Review, Stonecutter, The Literary Review and newyorker.com, and her work has received recognition from PEN/New York State Council on the Arts, the Academy of American Poets and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Mark Statman's books of poetry are That Train Again (Lavender Ink, 2015), A Map of the Winds (Lavender Ink, 2013), and Tourist at a Miracle (Hanging Loose, 2010). Other books include Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa(University of New Orleans Press, 2012), the first English language translation of the significant poet of Spain’s Generation of 1927, a translation, with Pablo Medina, of Federico García Lorca's Poet in New York (Grove 2008), as well as Listener in the Snow: The Practice and Teaching of Poetry (Teachers & Writers, 2000) and, co-edited with Christian McEwen, The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing(Teachers & Writers, 2000).