Poetry. Latino/Latino Studies. "The word 'cosmopolitan' has unfortunately come to connote a kind of haughty (perhaps affected) sophistication, so some other adjective is needed to convey the unusual combination of worldliness and immediacy that pulses in Ms. Griffor's poems. While she is capable of acknowledging and dramatizing ghastly geopolitical realities with stark veracity, she always--yes, always--approaches the momentous historical complexities she is uniquely situated to describe with a tenderness most people (including most poets) can only summon for their home life. Indeed, Mariela Griffor is entirely at home in the world at large, and in her poems she chronicles an unbroken continuum from her closest familial and companionable relationships to the hazards of true citizenship in our gigantic globalized society. I would say that Mariela Griffor has a sacramental sense of artistic vocation. She is dedicated, intellectually penetrating, and endlessly curious"--Jim Schley.
Author City: Grosse Pointe Park, MI USA
Mariela Griffor grew up in Santiago, Chile. Her childhood in the quiet home of her grandparents came to an abrupt halt when Augusto Pinochet and his fascist regime's coup d'etat overthrew the democratic government of Salvador Allende in 1973. Always devoted to poetry, which has sustained her through two decades of turmoil, Mariela is currently living with her husband and two young daughters in Grosse Point, Michigan, where, among other writing and publishing activities, she recently established the not-for-profit Marick Press, specializing in publishing poetry. Her first poetry collection, Exiliana, was published this year (Luna Press).
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“Reading Mariela Griffor’s poetry has meant a revelation to me. It is one of the most intense poetic voices among the rising stars of Chilean and Latin American poetry in recent times. Her book in its illuminating and painful focus, is above all testimony to the tragic events under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, like an emotional protest against it that transcends the pain to transform itself into hope. Of a visionary quality that is not usually found in a first book, Griffor’s poetry has grown to fruition in a poetic tradition of such great riches as that of Chilean poetry, with two Nobel Prizes, to begin opening new territory, previously untouched in this way which is why Mariela Griffor, together with having written a remarkable book (the excellent reception it’s received is a clear sign of this), represents at the same time a solid promise of what poetry can offer to the world.”
—Raúl Zurita