Poetry. "Argüelles is the living embodiment of the epic strain. He gives us genuinely singing lines, a music worthy of Homer himself, but in a polyform that Homer could never have imagined. ENIGMA & VARIATIONS integrates an empire's brutal history with parallel mythos and an eternal hymn to the omnipresent goddess with a panoramic scope that defies the limitations of human consciousness. In so doing it opens us to the great mystery beyond."—Jake Barry

Author City: BERKELEY, CA USA

Ivan Argüelles is one of this century's foremost surrealist poets. Born in Minnesota of Mexican and Anglo parentage (his father was a "communista" who knew Leon Trotsky personally), Ivan lived throughout the United States before settling in Berkeley, California. A polyglot and classicist, Argüelles manages to convey in his work a magical combination of surpassing reality and an almost eerie symbolism. His many books include A DAY IN THE SUN, ULTERIOR VISION(S), THE DEATH OF STALIN: SELECTED EARLY POEMS 1978-1989 (The Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, 2011), The Invention of Spain, LOOKING FOR MARY LOU: ILLEGAL SYNTAX (William Carlos Williams Award, 1989), "THAT" GODDESS, MADONNA SEPTET (2 vols.), INFERNO, and COMEDY, DIVINE, THE. Argüelles is founder and co-editor of Pantograph Press.