Description
Poetry. Latinx Studies. THE SCIENCE OF DEPARTURES is a book of goodbyes. Each poem in Adalber Salas Hernández's collection speaks to a different kind of farewell: death, estrangement, illness, dispossession, decomposition, banishment, stories forgetfully or oppressively re-written over time, the painful discrepancy between language and experience. Some address historical figures or speak in their voices. Others explore the body (living, dead, and in transit): where it goes, the borders it traverses, what it's forced to leave behind. Informed both by classical literature and contemporary Venezuelan politics, by twentieth-century history and high school biology class, by Twitter and the Old Testament, by the cynicism of bureaucracy and the wonder of parenthood, these poems register loss, condemn subjugation, and marvel at the music humans can make when we try to speak of it all.
Author Bio
Robin Myers (New York City, 1987) is a poet, translator, and essayist. Recent translations include COPY by Dolores Dorantes (Wave Books, 2022), ANOTHER LIFE by Daniel Lipara (Eulalia Books, 2021), THE SCIENCE OF DEPARTURES by Adalber Salas Hernández (Kenning Editions, 2021), Cars on Fire by Mónica Ramón Ríos (Open Letter Books, 2020), The Restless Dead by Cristina Rivera Garza (Vanderbilt University Press, 2020), and Animals at the End of the World by Gloria Susana Esquivel (University of Texas Press, 2020). She lives in Mexico City.
Author City: USA
Adalber Salas Hernández-poet, essayist, and translator-was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently La ciencia de las despedidas (Pre-Textos). He has published five collections of essays, as well as numerous translations from Portuguese, English, and French; these include works by Marguerite Duras, Antonin Artaud, Charles Wright, Mário de Andrade, Hart Crane, Pascal Quignard, Mark Strand, Lorna Goodison, Louise Glück, Yusef Komunyakaa, Anne Boyer, Frankétienne, and Patrick Chamoiseau. He has been a member of the editorial board for Revista POESÍA and Buenos Aires Poetry. He coordinates the collection Diablos Danzantes published by Amargord Ediciones and is pursuing a PhD at New York University.
Author City: NEW YORK, NY USA