Category Spanish
Notes from an Island: Mylene Fernández-Pintado’s A Corner of the World Translated by Dick Cluster
Reviewed by Charlotte Whittle The question of whether to stay or to leave is central to the lives of almost all of the characters in A Corner of the World, Mylene Fernández Pintado’s first book-length work in English translation. Trained as a lawyer, Fernández-Pintado is known in Cuba for her novels and short stories, for […]
More than Márquez: Hispabooks’ Ana Pérez Galván on Contemporary Spanish Literature
Brand new, Madrid-based independent publishing house Hispabooks has already generated buzz in the literary translation community and the publishing world, enriching the English-language book market with their first batch of releases from some of the most exciting and innovative contemporary Spanish authors. Founded in October, 2011 by Ana Pérez Galván and Gregorio Doval, two editors at large with […]
Beautiful Monstrosity: Leopoldo María Panero, translated by Arturo Mantecón
Reviewed by Lucina Schell, Editor “…almost all [critics] agree that he is the greatest living poet in Spanish, and the most significant one since García Lorca and Aleixandre,” Arturo Mantecón writes in his introduction to his selected translations of Leopoldo María Panero Like an Eye in the Hand of a Beggar (17). A big claim, […]
The Dark Territory in Ana Minga’s Tobacco Dogs, Translated by Alexis Levitin
Reviewed by Emily Thompson In his preface to Ana Minga’s Tobacco Dogs, translator Alexis Levitin sets the scene for the collection’s thirty-four poems: “Let us think of Hieronymus Bosch. Let us think of Francis Bacon. Let us think of Goya. These, to my mind, are her anguished compatriots” (viii). That the poet should find herself […]
Passionate Nomads by María Rosa Lojo, Translated by Brett Alan Sanders
Reviewed by Lucina Schell, Editor Ideally, literature in translation can illuminate an aspect of our own culture that deserves further reflection. Passionate Nomads by Maria Rosa Lojo, translated by Brett Alan Sanders, is such a work. Tackling Argentina’s difficult history of indigenous genocide, which bears striking resemblance to that carried out in the United States, […]
Donald Wellman on Antonio Gamoneda’s Description of the Lie
Donald Wellman joins me virtually upon the release of his latest translation of Antonio Gamoneda’s Description of the Lie for a conversation about the breakthrough poetic work in post-fascist Spain, from one of the country’s most celebrated contemporary poets. “I’ve been haunted by his voice…The power of the voice is irresistible.” “I am learning from [Gamoneda […]
Between Words: Juan Gelman’s Public Letter, translated by Lisa Rose Bradford
Reviewed by Lucina Schell, Editor All acts of translation pose challenges, but as an art form concerned with articulating the inexpressible, the nascent meanings underlying language, poetry is particularly complicated. The process of carrying meaning from one language to another requires navigating a sometimes wide chasm between words, and it is in the spaces between […]
Emilio Prados’ Jardin cerrado and the Spanish tradition in exile
Reviewed by Lucina Schell, Editor Donald Wellman’s lyrical translation of Emilio Prados’ Jardin cerrado (Enclosed Garden) introduces a major poet of Spain’s Generation of ’27 to English-speaking audiences. By choosing to translate a complete work of the poet, Wellman also gives us the gift of appreciating Prados’ full and complex vision at work in his […]
Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa, translated by Mark Statman
Reviewed by Lucina Schell, Editor Continuing on the theme of my last post, it is my pleasure to introduce a major literary recuperation via translation of another poet lost to the Spanish Civil War: José María Hinojosa. A contemporary of Federico García Lorca and other poets of the famed Generation of ’27, Hinojosa aligned himself […]
“…gane quien gane las guerras, las pierden siempre los poetas” / “…whoever wins wars, poets always lose”: Soldados de Salamina by Javier Cercas
Reviewed by Lucina Schell, Editor In his fascinating novel, Soldados de Salamina (Soldiers of Salamis), Javier Cercas allows his readers to discover the peculiarly symbolic life of the real historical figure Rafael Sanchez Mazas as we follow the journalistic detective work of the novel’s metafictional narrator. The unnamed narrator, a frustrated novelist turned journalist, first […]
