Description
Poetry. Latinx Studies. Art. Translated by Robin Myers. Illustrated by Carmen Amengual. "Ambitiously and with turbulent energy, Ezequiel Zaidenwerg takes on contemporary history and its uneasy relation to and representation by lyric poetry. Wary of old mythologies, Zaidenwerg nevertheless draws from them and from the bank of international literature to make this downpayment on a ferocious, self-conscious, and activist poetics for the 21st century."—Forrest Gander
"Zaidenwerg has a prosody that is both brutal and fragile. Every stroke of his syntax, in fertile tension with the images that accompany his poems, opens up the spectrum of possibility for observing and documenting the fleeting, disjointed, fucked-up world around us."—Valeria Luiselli
"Ironic, lucid, fierce, contradictory—in short, fascinating, LYRIC POETRY IS DEAD by Ezequiel Zaidenwerg is one of a kind, a poem that takes the form of a historical chronicle and relays in whisper tones the end of the journey that began with the death of the suitors in the Odyssey and concludes with another death—the death of poetry. This extraordinary and singular book raises up a new language that confirms Ezequiel Zaidenwerg as one of the most unique and captivating poets to have emerged from Latin America in recent times. His poetry is the first to refute the claim laid out in his title: LYRIC POETRY IS DEAD. And that refutation is something not all poets are in a position to make."—Raúl Zurita
"Wicked and wise, Zaidenwerg's poems turn a commonplace into an incantation that Robin Myers makes sing—and scream, and spit—in English. The lyric is dead; long live the lyric."—Heather Cleary
Author Bio
Ezequiel Zaidenwerg was born in 1981, in Buenos Aires. He has published the books of poems Doxa (Vox, 2007); La lírica está muerta (Vox, 2011; Cástor y Pólux, 2017); Sinsentidos comunes, illustrated by Raquel Cané (Bajo la luna, 2015); and 50 estados: 13 poetas contemporáneos de Estados Unidos (Bajo la luna, 2018). He is also the coauthor, with Mirta Rosenberg, of Bichos: Sonetos y comentarios, illustrated by Valentina Rebasa and Miguel Balaguer (Bajo la luna, 2017). Zaidenwerg has translated work by Mark Strand, Ben Lerner, Anne Carson, Weldon Kees, Robin Myers, Joseph Brodsky, Mary Ruefle, Denise Levertov and Kay Ryan, among others. He compiled and wrote the prologue to Penúltimos (UNAM, 2014), an anthology of Argentine poetry. Since 2005, he has maintained the website zaidenwerg.com, dedicated to poetry in translation.
Carmen Amengual grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has lived in Los Angeles since 2012. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Buenos Aires and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Carmen's work has been exhibited in different artspaces in Los Angeles, such as Dread Lounge, Human Resources, E.D.Freeman Gallery, Mint Gallery at CalArts (Valencia, California), and in Buenos Aires.
Author City: Buenos Aires ARG
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