Stuck in a literary rut? Our editors-at-large are back with up-to-the-minute recommendations for new translations, current literary festivals and exhibitions, and even an award-winning film!

Scott Weintraub, Editor-at-Large for Chile, reporting from the United States

In this second month of 2019, I would like to highlight some recent and forthcoming translations of Chilean poetry, since there have been several superb late-2018 publications and some exciting works slated to appear in 2019.

First, in September 2018, Cardboard House Press published Thomas Rothe and Rodrigo Olavarría’s remarkable translation of poète maudit Rodrigo Lira’s Testimony of Circumstances. This extraordinary book has received ample coverage in Asymptote—an excerpt of the translation appeared in the Winter 2017 issue, and an insightful review by Garrett Phelps appeared on the Asymptote blog. Late 2018 also saw the publication of Urayoán Noel’s brilliant translation of Pablo de Rokha’s poetry, titled Architecture of Dispersed Life. These inspired translations show off the complexity of de Rokha’s dark and humorous textualities and are “absolutely modern” in the Rimbaudian sense of the word. Also of note is the New and Selected Poems of Cecilia Vicuña (edited by Rosa Alcalá), which is particularly fascinating not only for the profound poetic and visual art explorations undertaken by Vicuña, but also for the work it features by several of Vicuña’s sharpest translators. And finally, I encourage readers to seek out Mónica de la Torre’s translation of Omar Cáceres’ Defense of the Idol (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018). Cáceres was a cult poet highly praised by ranking members of the pantheon of Chilean literature, such as Vicente Huidobro and Pablo Neruda. READ MORE…