A t a n o r

Cuatro poemas rojianos

2011-02-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

Ayer me enteré de que Gonzalo Rojas, a sus noventa y tres años de reniñez, sufrió un infarto cerebral. Algunas notas dicen, absurdas, que "se encuentra estable dentro de su gravedad" y cosas así. Lo cierto es que el proceso es irreversible. Se nos va -a muchísimos- el poeta vivo más grande de la lengua española. No pensé que fuera a afectarme tanto esta noticia. Cierto: Parra y Gamoneda y Cardenal y Belli, mis otros grandes, todavía están de pie; sin embargo, el cariño y admiración que tengo por la poesía del hijo de Lebu, no es comparable. Asma es amor dicen las lobas que me han sido. Sin más, cuelgo aquí cuatro poemas, provenientes de mis tres últimos libros, donde se me aparece Gonzalo. Espero que no deje de hablarme.

Nombro este mundo a ciegas, a rápidos aullidos, me erosiono. Faltan letras de molde para inventar el hambre, la espesura de saberse fragmentario. ¿Quién me escinde? ¿Qué inédita negrura se esconde tras mi sombra? ¿Es que todos los círculos se han vuelto espirales? Hurgo en el delirio la rosa transparente, la percudida faz del vellocino. Dense prisa, por favor, que ya es hora. Buenas noches, Lejana, buenas noches. Arborece en tus labios el hastío: lo irreparable —dice Rojas franqueando los ochenta. Cielo oscuro, faroles, parpadeas. Se entreteje el ocaso a las pupilas, la brisa a un eucalipto senil como el verano. No sirve arrepentirse, desdeñar esta línea, aquella imagen. Si la epidermis fuera hábitat del moho; si al menos te incendiaras por tu nombre. El flujo es la desgracia.

(de Aspa Viento, 2003)

Diestra siniestra

No diría que llego a ningún lado

tan sólo que me acerco

en aluvión de ritmos al Zumbido

fragante de las sílabas

en mi diestra acunadas

y en la flor del oído así dispersas

tan sólo que unas veces

al agitar los dados parietales

de Mallarmé o Vallejo

entro en la pulsión de la memoria

puedo escribir mi sombra

en árboles prohibidos

deshuesarme

o levitar apenas me despierto

pero en vez de acariciar la transparencia

de sumo apetecida

me distraigo:

malverso el néctar sublimado

en la redoma del insomnio

demoro tan callando

el borrador

oculto en la siniestra

y mientras tanto

en la tinta se espuma el muladar rüido

que habría de regresarme al polvo

del Origen

a Rojas, el Gonzalo

(de Deshuesadero, 2006)

Rosa bengalí

Pero fui delicado

Gonzalo Rojas

Hija de tigre, lasciva de fulgor en la ceguera

escrita de quien sostuvo al mundo

entre nudillos. Míralo: casi un feto al pie

de la escalera. Hija del amarillo respirar,

la ensoñación putita, digamos, que aparece

por costumbre a las seis, como una sombra

que aún hiedra las paredes de Querétaro.

Hija de la grandísima amargura, fiera

sinuosa que encharca en las mejillas

la sangre de febrero, la aciaga cabellera,

los pasos que me siguen desde entonces.

¿Por qué no diste vuelta en otra plaza,

cambiaste de andador sin respirarme,

siendo tan ancho el gris de la avenida?

Fácil hubiera sido y nunca, nunca esotro.

Hija de ti, incestuosa, morada en que reincide

la carne porque es fértil su espejismo.

¿Es que no abriste en Inverness tus lábiles

peciolos? ¿Nadie admiró incendiarse

tus palpos mojigatos en un frío suburbio

de Wisconsin? Fácil y nunca hubiera.

Mas andé tu andador y me arrepiento

de tan blandos relojes, de ahora recordarte

entre los folios del argentino homero. Hija de

la barroca circunstancia: vuelve a tu esfera

púrpura, arrójate sin fe al decimonono

escalón, entra en la grieta lúgubre y, chao,

saludos al invierno, digamos, nunca vuelvas,

que sólo un tigre ciego ha de extrañarte.

(de Drâstel, 2011)

Lengua a ras

“y es que nadie

Gonzalo

había

Nadie

me había

gozado

de esta forma”

a Rojas por Celan

(de Drâstel, 2011)

2010-03-09T20:26:00.000-08:00

Embassy, un poema en prosa en la revista Letras Libres de marzo (tanto en la edición mexicana como en la española).

"Caza" en el Anuario de Poesía Mexicana 2008

2010-02-25T00:51:00.000-08:00

Recién me entero en el blog del buen Rodrigo Castillo que finalmente ha salido el Anuario de Poesía Mexicana 2008 del Fondo de Cultura Económica, compilado por la poeta María Baranda. El poema con que figuro ahí es Caza, aparecido previamente en Tierra Adentro.

Ensayos de la memoria - Jordi Boldó

2010-02-25T00:34:00.000-08:00

A partir de hoy se puede visitar el nuevo blog del pintor Jordi Boldó titulado Ensayos de la memoria, que contiene, íntegramente, su libro-objeto Ensayos de la memoria [Apuntes para el recuerdo]. No se lo pierdan. Es una maravilla.

Presentaciones de "Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas: Poesía Iberoamericana Made in USA"

2010-02-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

Miércoles 24 de febrero de 18:00 a 18:45 hrs. Presentación de libro. Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas. Poesía hispanoamericana made in USA. comp. Mónica de la Torre y Cristián Gómez. Participan: Gabriela Jauregui, José Molina, Rocío Cerón. Antigua capilla del Palacio de Minería. Tacuba 5, Centro Histórico. Feria del Libro de Minería, Ciudad de México.

Sábado 27 de febrero, 19:00 hrs. Presentación de libro. Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas. Poesía hispanoamericana made in USA. comp. Mónica de la Torre y Cristián Gómez. Participan: Gabriela Jauregui, José Molina, Rocío Cerón y Rodrigo Castillo. Librería - Restaurante La Jícara, Porfirio Díaz 115, Oaxaca, Oaxaca.

***

¿Cómo se desliza la América Latina en los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica? ¿Desde dónde se escribe la nueva literatura de los latinos que radican en USA? No sólo el chile, el mate o el aguardentico rigen en los States, la nueva poesía de autores latinos que escriben desde el otro lado del río Bravo está cambiando la forma en que podemos y debemos entender la poesía contemporánea de Iberoamérica. Un libro que asombrará a propios y extraños. Una joya a decir verdad. - vía Facebook

***

La antología que estábamos esperando

Cristián Gómez Olivares

Como ya está anunciado en el sitio de la editorial, no veo por qué no darlo a conocer aquí con bombos y platillos. Por fin, por fin ya está saliendo la antología que Mónica de La Torre y este servidor preparamos durante todo este año (aunque los planes comenzaran desde antes). Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas: poesía iberoamericana made in USA, es el título que en honor a Los prisioneros le pusimos a esta selección de poesía que si bien no es la primera en su terreno, sí busca recoger un corpus de autores o escirturas cada vez más acendrado en el país del norte.

Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas reúne a unos catorce autores de distinta proveniencia y trayectoria, pero que cuentan con el denominador común de vivir (o de haber vivido por largo tiempo) en Estados Unidos. Mónica y yo queríamos, por sobre todo, averiguar si la experiencia de tener raíces latinas en contacto con la cultura norteamericana había tenido algún efecto (de la índole que fuera) en la escritura de estos poetas.

Con eso en mente, pronto nos dimos cuenta que teníamos muchísimo paño que cortar. Lo primero que teníamos por delante: definir qué es ser latino en USA, para recién entonces abocarnos a la tarea de delimitar ese concepto de latino habitando en este país. Aclaro desde ya que no pudimos con ninguna de las dos tareas. A lo más, en nuestro largo intercambio digital-epistolar, Mónica y yo nos atuvimos a ciertos criterios operativos, definiciones provisorias que nos permitieran movernos en el amplio que enfrentábamos.

La idea de poeta latino con trabajamos fue de por sí amplia. Se incluían en ella: de partida aquellos que habiendo nacido en países de habla hispana, se hubieran venido a estas tierras por motivos laborales o políticos o ambos a la vez. O motivos sentimentales, si los hubiera. O el hubiera tenido a bien cada uno de los poetas, pero que estuviera viviendo aquí, con cara de permanencia. Aquí entraban poetas como Román Luján, José Pepe Molina, Marcelo Pellegrini, Francisco Leal, Jorge Frisancho, entre otros. Otra categoría es la de aquellos y aquellas que siendo norteamericanos, tenían raíces de distinto tipo en la cultura latina (concepto, este último, también bastante amplio). Aquí entraban autores como Andrés Fisher, Rodrigo Toscano y Urayoán Noel. Fisher representa, creo, la quintaesencia de esta categoría. Nació en Chile, hijo de padres chilenos, pero ha pasado largas temporadas de su vida entre España y, desde hace algunos años, en algún lugar del estado de North Carolina, donde hace clases de español y sociología. Pero también habían, para agregarle un poquito más de diversidad a este panorama de por sí diverso, aquellos poetas latinos que escriben en inglés, o en spanglish, y que son por derecho propio tan latinos como cualquiera. Daniel Borzutsky, sin ir más lejos, es chileno, si se entiende por chileno alguien que nació en Chile, hijo de padres chilenos, es fanatico de los Cubs y creció en Pittsburgh. Es, además, traductor de Juan Emar y Jaime Huenún, como para que no queden dudas de sus credenciales patrias. Rosa Alcalá escribe en inglés, enseña Literatura Creativa en El Paso, Texas y es traductora. Muchos de ellos son profesores universitarios, incluso en universidades privadas, lo cual en Chile dicen que es pescado.

Subyacen a la selección que hicimos Mónica y yo, esas zonas fronterizas y aún no delimitadas (tal vez nunca lo sean, tal vez no sea necesario) entre la poesía latina en USA, la poesía hispanoamericana escrita en USA y la poesía chicana, ninguna de las cuales es equivalente a ninguna de las otras, pero tampoco se encuentran plenamente divorciadas. Están, por el contrario, íntimamente intertwined. Los vasos comunicantes son múltiples y no sería difícil tentarse con la figura del rizoma para explicar los movimientos sin retorno que marcan la relación entre estos discursos. La minoría étnica de los latinos en USA tiene una larga lista de implicaciones sociológicas. Sin embargo, como concepto para discriminar cuestiones literarias, se queda corto. Ni todos los latinos son mexicanos ni es lo mismo ser chicano de primera generación que un inmigrante recién llegado. Ni es lo mismo lo que escriben Pepe Molina y Rodrigo Toscano. Ni tampoco el camino de vuelta está muy bien definido. Poco se sabe, muchas veces, en nuestros propios países, de la poesía hispana escrita en Yanquilandia. Ni tampoco tiene un lugar que haya sido establecido en la historia de esas literaturas. Por poner un caso que me toca: podríamos decir que los chilenos que vivimos en el exterior no tenemos derecho a voto ni lectores.

Sobra decir que la antología no podría salir sin el esfuerzo y la dedicación de los editores del Billar, Rocío Jazmín Cerón Flores y el nunca bien ponderado Rodrigo Castillo. Nunca me había escrito tantos correos como los que intercambiamos con Mónica, Rocío y Rodrigo. La corrección de pruebas fue tan tediosa y satisfactoria como lo suele ser ese oficio siempre mal pagado e incomprendido (lo digo con conocimiento de causa, ya que a mí me tocó aprender en la escuela de Silvia Aguilera y LOM ediciones, cuando aquella querida editorial aún estaba empezando y a veces había que corregir un libro al día).

A esta antología la anteceden otros trabajos semejantes, como la antología de poetas latinos que hiciera el poeta colombiano Carlos Aguasaco (Encuentro: 10 poetas latinos en USA) y The Wind Shfts: New Latino Poetry, de Francisco Aragón, entre muchas otras. También la anteceden la obra de amigos y autores como Miguel Ángel Zapata, Róger Santiváñez, Eduardo Espina, Carlota Caulfield, Lila Zemborain. José Kozer. Y antes que ellos Pedro Lastra, Armando Romero, Enrique Fierro, libros como A partir de Manhattan y, aún más lejos, el Poeta en Nueva York de Lorca. Malditos latinos, malditos sudacas se suma con alegría a esos esfuerzos.

vía epígrafe para un libro condenado

Hilos - Chantal Maillard

2010-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Permanece —¿permanecer?— la carne

herida. Hay cicatriz.

Y la mente —¿la mente?— herida.

¿Herida? No, no hay herida. Si

la hubiese habría sangre. Hay

cicatriz. Tampoco.

Si hubiese cicatriz, sería

evidente. No siempre se ven, dicen.

Ciertas palabras se utilizan

en vez de otras, dicen. Cuando

no hay palabras suficientes.

Mejor cuando no hay

cosa.

La mente acusa sentimientos:

segrega. Hila. La mente, no. No hay.

Sólo hay hilo. Saliva.

La boca seca. No hay saliva. ¿No

la hay? Un hilo forma imagen. La

imagen de un cuerpo. Blanco. Como

todos los que han muerto. No lo he

visto. He visto otros. A ése, no. Pero

forma imagen. El hilo. Algo segrega.

Hambre. Algo dice

hambre. La sacia. ¿Frío?

Algo recuerda la palabra

frío. No la siente. La obvia.

Habrá que levantarse. Aunque sin

saber para qué. Sin saber

tampoco para qué el para qué.

Levantarse y dar vueltas en esta

habitación. O también, cambiar de ha-

bitación. Pero no. Mas seguro es

quedarse aquí, tecleando. Un teclado

es algo conocido. Tienen un

sonido peculiar, las teclas,

cuando se las pulsa.

Quedar en lo reconocible.

—¿Quedar?—Permanecer. Ya dije

permanecer. Ya pregunté.

Quedar es permanecer

por más tiempo.

Siempre se puede partir.

Partir es dar pasos fuera.

Fuera de la habitación.

De la mente, no. —¿Mente?—

Ya pregunté. Y no hay. Hay hilo.

Partir es dar pasos

fuera de la habitación

con el hilo. El mismo hilo.

La palabra silencio dentro.

Dentro de uno —¿uno?

Paradoxes and Oxymorons - John Ashbery

2010-02-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.

Look at it talking to you. You look out a window

Or pretend to fidget. You have it but you don’t have it.

You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other.

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot.

What’s a plain level? It is that and other things,

Bringing a system of them into play. Play?

Well, actually, yes, but I consider play to be

A deeper outside thing, a dreamed role-pattern,

As in the division of grace these long August days

Without proof. Open-ended. And before you know

It gets lost in the steam and chatter of typewriters.

It has been played once more. I think you exist only

To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there

Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem

Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.

Massive Attack - United Snakes

2009-12-24T09:34:00.001-08:00

Having a Coke with You - Frank O'Hara

2009-12-04T12:54:00.001-08:00

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or

at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them

when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully

as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvellous experience

which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it

2009-11-29T22:22:00.000-08:00

Versión Wordle de mi poema Racimos.

"De par en par", poesía visual de Myriam Moscona - otro lanzamiento de Bonobos en la FIL Guadalajara!

2009-11-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

Jueves 3 de diciembre. 18 horas

Feria Internacional del Libro. Guadalajara

2009-11-19T23:24:00.000-08:00

Bonobos presenta

Litane de Alejandro Tarrab

Widescreen de Víctor Cabrera

Hostería La Bota

Regina 48. Centro. México

26 de noviembre, 19 horas

2009-11-17T23:33:00.000-08:00

CECI
UC Mexicanistas
Department of Spanish and Portuguese

I Jornadas de Cultura, Lengua y Literatura Coloniales

University of California Los Angeles
19, 20 y 21 de noviembre de 2009

program

2009-11-17T21:15:00.001-08:00

DEFEND PUBLIC EDUCATION

Tell the UC Regents: No More Fee Hikes!

11/18 + 11/19—UCLA—Covel Commons

UC Regents will meet at UCLA in Covel Commons from Tuesday 11/17—Thursday 11/19

Wednesday: Regents' Committee scheduled to vote on fee hikes around 10:45AM
Thursday: Regents scheduled to vote on fee hikes

Picket Lines, Public Comment, Rally, UC-Wide Strike, Crisis Fest, and More Planned in Response!
See schedule in this email for details

for more information:
http://ucstrike.com
http://sites.google.com/site/protestucregents/
http://crisisfestucla.blogspot.com/
http://ucfightsback.blogspot.com
ucfightsback@gmail.com, crisisfest@gmail.com,'save ucla!' facebook page

UCLA FIGHTS BACK MOVEMENT PROGRAM

1. Lower Student Fees.

2. Stop the Privatization of Our Public Schools.

3. Defend the Right to Quality Higher Education. Prioritize funding to public education.

a) Provide budget transparency, provide transparency in the decision making process, allow for an independent audit of the
UC budget, and implement progressive budget solutions.
b) Maintain our resources, including weekend library access.
c) Maintain comprehensive, critical, and culturally representative educational excellence.
d) Stop cuts to Humanities and Social Sciences.
e) Cut funding for war. No military recruitment on our campuses.
f) Tax the rich and prioritize funding in the public interest.

4. Stop the Resegregation of Public Education. Ensure access and diversity in higher education.

a) Increase underrepresented minority student enrollment.
b) Provide full scholarships for AB540 Students.
c) No ICE/UCPD collaboration on our campuses.
d) Expand the Blue and Gold Opportunity Program to ensure access for low-income students.
e) Allocate funds for recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority students.

5. Respect Workers’ Rights and Contracts

a) Reverse the layoffs, protect vital services, and stop pay cuts for the lowest paid workers.
b) Stop the union busting and bargain in good faith.
c) No furloughs for workers who make $40,000 or less.
d) No ICE/UCPD collaboration on our campuses.

UCLA FIGHTS BACK SCHEDULE OF EVENTS AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

Tuesday, November 17th
*ALL DAY—Flyering, Announcements, and Sign-Making* (find us on Bruin Walk!)
1-3PM—Press Conference—Pat Morrison @ Covel Commons

Wednesday, November 18th—Regents' Meeting— Covel Commons (unless otherwise stated)

6AM— Set-up pickets— Volunteers needed — Meet at AFSCME Office 1085 Gayley (near El Pollo Loco)
6:30-7:30AM—Picket Prep and Picket Lines
*8-10AM—Public Comment*
10-11:30AM—Picket and Flyer
10:30AM—Food— Food Volunteers Needed at 10AM
*11:30-12NOON—Meet at Bruin Plaza and march to Covel Commons* (for students, staff, and faculty who can't make morning actions)
*12NOON-1PM—Press Conference and Rally *
2-4PM—Teach-Out
1-4PM—Picket and Flyer
4-5PM—Tent City Prep—Tent Prep Volunteers Needed at 4PM
*5PM—Midnight Tent City and Crisis Fest at Wilson Plaza* (free food, hot drinks, workshops, discussions, camp on campus)

BUSES FROM CALIFORNIA

2 buses Berkeley
1 bus Santa Cruz
1 bus Santa Barbara
1 bus Riverside
1 bus Irvine
3 buses San Diego

Thursday, November 19th —Regent's Meeting— Covel Commons (unless otherwise stated)

6AM—Set-up pickets—Volunteers Needed Meet at AFSCME Office 1085 Gayley Ave (near El Pollo Loco)
6:30-7:30AM—Picket Prep and Picket Lines
*8-10am—Public Comment*
10:30AM—Food—Food Volunteers Needed at 10AM
10-11AM—Regents Trial—Political Theater—Volunteers, Actors and Script Writers Needed
*12NOON-1:30PM—Rally at Covel* (to march through Bruin Plaza)
3PM—All buses scheduled to leave

Collective Poetry Reading of Latin American Poetry in Translation, an event of Crisis Fest

2009-11-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Wednesday 18th, at 5:30 pm, and as part of CRISIS FEST, I will coordinate/conduct/organize --whatever you wanna call it-- a collective reading of contemporary Latin American poetry in translation. I will provide you with some copies but you are more than welcome to bring your favorite poetry, Latin American or not. Come to read in Spanish and/or English.

2009-11-16T22:32:00.000-08:00

Call for Papers

Hybrid Storyspaces:
Redefining the Critical Enterprise
in Twenty-First Century Hispanic Literature

An Interactive, Multimedia Conference @
Cornell University, April 30th - May1st, 2010

The speed of adaptation to new communication and network possibilities have left the majority of culture critics and literary scholars struggling to find meaningful technical and theoretical language to engage the relation of new media to print culture. The goal of this conference is to rethink transnational Hispanic literary theory and practice, taking into account the evolving literary forms of our time. We will examine the contributions to text and theory suggested by new, hybrid storyspaces, including the effects on narrative of new televisual and cybernetic media spaces (reality television, YouTube, blogs, Google, yahoo jukebox), new genres (video clip novels, zapping fiction, docufiction), and new pedagogies (how media is shaping our critical universe).

A Hybrid Conference Format:

In line with the theoretical goal of this conference, we highly encourage a hybrid presentation format. We ask that participants not present papers at this conference, but rather create interactive and/or multimedia presentations whose goal it is to enter into physical and virtual dialogue with one another. For this purpose, we are not limiting presentations to 20 minutes, but ask you to propose a time limit and a format that is appropriate to your presentation content and format. We encourage interdisciplinary, collaborative and interactive presentations—live wires and ideas in motion rather than fixed and finished products.

This conference will be virtually enhanced through an interactive website. This interface (similar to an igoogle page) will be easy to use and it will allow all participants to share information about themselves and their projects, to participate in live blogs and chats, and to share visual and textual support material before their presentations.

Abstracts are due January 15th, 2010

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

What is Google Doing in My Text?
• Fiction 2.0 -or- 3.0?
• How are Blogs Redefining the Text, the Role of the Writer, Fan, and Critic?
• How is the Creative Commons, Open Source Changing our Creative and Critical Approaches to
Hispanic Literature?
• Where is the Reality in this Fiction?
• Second Textual/Sexual Lives: The Self in Virtual Spaces
• Centering the Marginal/Marginalizing the Center
• Media Literacy in the Digital Age
• The Nomad Subject and the Traveling Text
• Hybrid Genres
• Interactive Fiction
• YouTube / YouText

For submission of abstracts and for more information contact: Debra Castillo: dac9@cornell.edu and/or Christine Henseler: henselec@union.edu

Fundación Adopte a un Escritor: Manifiesto Introducible - Rubén Bonet

2009-11-03T10:40:00.001-08:00

Este manifiesto y otras linduras en Jaikús maniacos,

nuevo y esperado libro del compa Bonet.

"Primer libro de la nueva época de la EDITORIAL MOHO. El mito de Rubén Bonet lo sobrepasa: escritor maldito e insoportable, artista subterráneo y sobreviviente de todas las batallas. Jaikús maniacos (reunión de escritos lúdicos y anarquistas) representa su personal regreso a escena"

SDLAV!

2009-10-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

no se pierdan la presentación
de la novela multimedia

Signos de la amnesia voluntaria

de Benjamín Moreno

30 de octubre de 2009, 19 hrs.

Centro de Arte Bernardo Quintana
Querétaro, Qro.

"Signos de la amnesia voluntaria es la historia de la muerte de un patriarca y las consecuencias que esto desencadena en el entorno familiar. Miguel, quien da voz a la historia, es un niño cuya infancia está marcada por la separación de sus padres y la muerte de su abuelo. El hilo que va uniendo su diálogo con los adultos y la descripción de un entorno íntimo, permite al lector reconstruir una historia a partir de distintas versiones de los hechos narrados por los personajes.

Benjamín R. Moreno se introduce en un entorno íntimo, como un diario personal donde desarrolla una historia a partir de monólogos, extractos de diálogos, crítica, fragmentos y una relación cercana a los objetos circunstanciales que rodea a los personajes."

(tomado del boletín de prensa de Conaculta)

2009-10-21T22:55:00.000-07:00

He estado tomando algunas notas sobre Mouchette con la intención de armar un texto breve. Quizás lo cuelgue aquí o lo mande a alguna revista. A pesar de ser prácticamente una reliquia digital, esta pieza me sigue intrigando; por momentos no sé si seguir haciendo clic o salir (¿de dónde?). ¿Qué les sugiere? ¿Les mueve algo?

Text Rain - Camille Utterback & Romy Achituv, 1999

2009-10-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

Text Rain is an interactive installation in which participants use the familiar instrument of their bodies, to do what seems magical—to lift and play with falling letters that do not really exist (...)

Rémora: un poema en Metrópolis

2009-10-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

(vía Facebook)

En su edición de octubre, Metrópolis les invita a internarse en el laberinto con la obra poética de:

Hazzel Yen, Durango, México (1987)
Silvana Franzetti, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1965)
Román Luján, Monclova, México (1975)
Luis Panini, Monterrey, México (1978)
Jaime Pinos, Santiago de Chile (1970)
Gladys González, Santiago de Chile (1981)
Lizardo Cruzado, Trujillo, Perú (1975)
Santiago Llach, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1972)
Roxana Páez Schickendantz, La Plata, Argentina (1962)
James Womack, Inglaterra (1979), en traducción de Ana Gorría, Barcelona, España (1979)

Con plástica de Mónica Dower (Southampton, Inglaterra) y diseño de Antonio Limón Rojo (Aguascalientes, México).

"Sesenta años aquí": Homenaje a David Huerta

2009-10-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

EL COLEGIO DE LETRAS HISPÁNICAS

DE LA FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS

LA CASA DEL POETA RAMÓN LÓPEZ VELARDE

invitan al

HOMENAJE A DAVID HUERTA

SESENTA AÑOS AQUÍ

jueves 22 de octubre

Aula Magna de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras

10:00 hs.: Inauguración

10:15 hs.: David Huerta en persona

Federico Campbell

Christopher Domínguez Michael

Ernesto Lumbreras

Francisco Martínez Negrete

Moderador: Josu Landa

12:00 hs.: La poética de David Huerta

Luis Cortés Bargalló

Miguel Manríquez

Carlos Ulises Mata

Sergio Ugalde

Moderadora: Blanca Estela Treviño

14:00 hs.: La palabra incurable I

María Rivera

Lauri García Dueñas

César Arístides

Víctor Cabrera

Luis Felipe Fabre

Luis Flores

Leopoldo Laurido

Eduardo Uribe

Moderador: Alfonso Vázquez Salazar

16:00 hs.: La palabra incurable II

Coral Bracho

Alicia García Bergua

Eduardo Hurtado

(Se leerán textos de Elsa Cross y Antonio Deltoro)

Moderador: Carlos Oliva

18:00 hs.: Sesenta años Aquí

David Huerta

Marcelo Uribe

Moderador: Salvador Gallardo Cabrera

20:00 hs.: Clausura

Josu Landa

2009-10-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

Robert Crumb at UCLA!

Paterson de William Carlos Williams, en traducción de Hugo García Manríquez, ya está a la venta

2009-10-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Seis poesías sin contenido económico - Marco Antonio Ettedgui

2009-08-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Luis XVIII fue, sin duda, de los héroes reyes
en la metafórica corte francesa
que adoraba las piernas de María Teresa
cuando la tan nombrada Guerra Franco-Prusiana
Sus monarquías nacionales estaban
acompasadas con oboes
y miradas separatistas de corte pénico
corte y costura roza por los labios
genitales de María Teresa
y le sale sangre
descubriendo con México la América
erótica
de olores de tucán (largos picos comiendo atún
en sus camas oliendo a pescado)
y perfume "Richelieu".

Guillermo III de Orange,
luego de la visita de los Orange a la ciudad que
en años posteriores tuviera la
gran dignidad de llamarse NEW YORK,
comíase las uñas por las oscuridades subterráneas
revelando con un proyector de marca finísima
la versión en video de "Star Wars"
debajo de su trono, entre cuatro estacas,
proyectaba y comía y su estómago y sus ojos gozaban
de grandes placeres terrenales,
se decía,
que al final de su sesión,
coloreaba delicadísimamente las guerras civiles
con frasco y medio de polvo de rosas "Chanson de Roland"
de insuperable calidad.

Y que Fernando VII se masturbaba en los baños españoles
con las pelucas peinadas de los Borbones
mientras Isabel hacía sexo en la cocina
y los cuartos de la servidumbre: gran estrella culinaria
ella se aromatizaba con Gaspard, José Gregorio Godoy
y alguna que otra majestuosa y bien merecida
zanahoria
ellos eran los violinistas de la cocina real.

Felipe II se separaba de Portugal
por su grandísimo elocuente mal carácter.
De velas la llenó
el aceite tapó tanto sus pezones
que nunca más, hasta la II Guerra Mundial
pudo tener hijos varones.
Felipe y Portugal vivieron 130 años de odio
nunca más escucharon de la música.

Odiaba a su padre
el Rey Jacobo I
en la casa de Estuardo
odia a su padre, desde luego,
él
es la causa de sus alteraciones ciclotímicas
y de sus norteamericanos vicios.
Vivía eyaculando vicios
que él luego bebía
con un placer y un odio
que sólo él y él podían reír.

como en un retrato de Rembrandt
sus ojos y bocas se besan, pasean sus
lenguas y les sabe como sabían las
páginas de la madre de Gorki
supe que frotaron una mano con el arrugado pubis de él
del hueco exhalaba la voz de Dios
murmurando progresivamente: Ha muerto San Juan.
La génesis —dijo Rembrandt— al finalizar
la génesis meninal —dijo Rembrandt— mientras
orinaba (llevaba tres días sin hacerlo)
¡y es un nacimiento de las interjecciones!
con ellas aparecía en la faz terrestre
la latinoamericana figura del dictador.

de Ettedgui: arte-información para la comunidad.

Ediciones Oxígeno: Caracas, 1985.

2009-08-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

Christopher Domínguez Michael sobre Heriberto Yépez, aquí.

Élmer Mendoza sobre la cultura del narco en México, acá.

J.M. Coetzee sobre las cartas de Samuel Beckett, acuyá.

Jaap Blonk + Golan Levin = Kurt Schwitters (Ursonate / Ursonography)

2009-08-04T08:45:00.001-07:00

Highlights from the premiere of "Ursonography" by Jaap Blonk and Golan Levin, 2005. Blonk's performance of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate is augmented with a modest but elegant new form of expressive, real-time, "intelligent subtitles." With the help of computer-based speech recognition and score-following technologies, projected subtitles are tightly locked to the timing and timbre of Blonk's voice, and brought forth with a variety of dynamic typographic transformations that reveal new dimensions of the poem's structure. Performed at Ars Electronica, September 2005. (via golanlevin)

Dos poemas de Bernardo Schiavetta

2009-08-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

La poesía de los otros

airosa esplendorosa milagrosa
calurosa ardorosa fervorosa
numerosa anchurosa generosa
memoriosa lustrosa marmorosa

praderosa olorosa nemorosa
ruborosa amorosa primorosa
vaporosa borrosa penumbrosa
umbrosa soñorosa vagarosa

morosa pesarosa quejumbrosa
suspirosa llorosa dolorosa
ojerosa onerosa impudorosa

escabrosa asquerosa mentirosa
cancerosa horrorosa estertorosa
desastrosa astrosa leprosa prosa

de Fórmulas para Cratilo (1990)

Cindy Sherman - Doll Clothes (1975)

2009-07-30T07:50:00.001-07:00

via UbuWeb

Super-8 black and white film transferred to video, silent
2min, 22sec
installation

One of the First Cindy Sherman's super-8 film,"Doll Clothes" has not been viewed since 1975, the year it was made. It comically crosses Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase with animated paper dolls in a sly, funny and clever precursor to the concerns that became signature elements in Sherman's remarkable body of photographic work.

Purchased with assistance from the American Patrons of Tate, using funds raised by a group of private collectors including Kathy and Richard S Fuld Jr, Monica Kalpakian, and Steve and Lisa Tananbaum 2008

"Sherman's 1975 animated short Doll Clothes, is among the pieces that bring Sherman's early exploration of gender and identity into focus." -- Paul Ha and Catherine Morris

Retroimpulso - Gonzalo Rojas

2009-07-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

Me consta que se guarda la fórmula, el cadáver
de cada idea, lo ilusorio,
el sudor, la saliva,
mientras se arroja el semen al pantano
por temor a que estalle la semilla:
este es el mito aciago
de la idea molida por el sol de la muerte.

Por eso veo claro que Dios es cosa inútil,
como el furor de las ideas
que vagan en el aire haciendo un remolino
de nacimientos, muertes, bodas y funerales,
revoluciones, guerras, iglesias, dictaduras,
infierno, esclavitud, felicidad; y todo
expresado en su música y su signo.

Por eso estoy hundido,
en esa posición de quien perdió su centro,
la cabeza apoyada en mis rodillas,
como una criatura que vuelve a las entrañas
de millares de madres sucesivas,
buscando en esos bosques las raíces primeras,
mordido por serpientes y pájaros monstruosos,
nadando en la marea del instinto,
buscando lo que soy, como un gusano
doblado para verse.

de Oscuro, 1977.

Ulises Carrión - The New Art of Making Books (El arte nuevo de hacer libros, 1975)

2009-07-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

WHAT A BOOK IS

A book is a sequence of spaces.

Each of these spaces is perceived at a different moment - a book is also a sequence of moments.

. . . .

A book is not a case of words, nor a bag of words, nor a bearer of words.

. . . .

A writer, contrary to the popular opinion, does not write books.

A writer writes texts.

The fact, that a text is contained in a book, comes only from the dimensions of such a text; or, in the case of a series of short texts (poems, for instance), from their number.

. . . .

A literary (prose) text contained in a book ignores the fact that the book is an autonomous space-time sequence.

A series of more or less short texts (poems or other) distributed through a book following any
particular ordering reveals the sequential nature of the book.

It reveals it, perhaps uses it; but it does not incorporate it or assimilate it.

. . . .

Written language is a sequence of signs expanding within the space; the reading of which occurs in the time.

A book is a space-time sequence.

. . . .

Books existed originally as containers of (literary) texts.

But books, seen as autonomous realities, can contain any (written) language, not only literary language, or even any other system of signs.

. . . .

Among languages, literary language (prose and poetry) is not the best fitted to the nature of books.

. . . .

A book may be the accidental container of a text, the structure of which is irrelevant to the book: these are the books of bookshops and libraries.

A book can also exist as an autonomous and self-sufficient form, including perhaps a text that emphasizes that form, a text that is an organic part of that form: here begins the new art of making books.

. . . .

In the old art the writer judges himself as being not responsible for the real book. He writes the text. The rest is done by the servants, the artisans, the workers, the others.

In the new art writing a text is only the first link in the chain going from the writer to the reader. In the new art the writer assumes the responsibility for the whole process.

. . . .

In the old art the writer writes texts.

In the new art the writer makes books.

. . . .

To make a book is to actualize its ideal space-time sequence by means of the creation of a parallel sequence of signs, be it linguistic or other.

PROSE AND POETRY

In an old book all the pages are the same.

When writing the text, the writer followed only the sequential laws of language, which are not the sequential laws of books.

Words might be different on every page; but every page is, as such, identical with the preceding ones and with those that follow.

In the new art every page is different; every page is an individualized element of a structure (the book) wherein it has a particular function to fulfill.

. . . .

In spoken and written language pronouns substitute for nouns, so to avoid tiresome, superfluous repetitions.

In the book, composed of various elements, of signs, such as language, what is it that plays the role of pronouns, so to avoid tiresome, superfluous repetitions?

This is a problem for the new art; the old one does not even suspect its existence.

. . . .

A book of 500 pages, or of 100 pages, or even of 25, wherein all the pages are similar, is a boring book considered as a book, no matter how thrilling the content of the words of the text printed on the pages might be.

. . . .

A novel, by a writer of genius or by a third-rate author, is a book where nothing happens.

. . . .

There are still, and always will be, people who like reading novels. There will also always be people who like playing chess, gossiping, dancing the mambo, or eating strawberries with cream.

. . . .

In comparison with novels, where nothing happens, in poetry books something happens sometimes, although very little.

. . . .

A novel with no capital letters, or with different letter types, or with chemical formulae interspersed here and there etc., is still a novel, that is to say, a boring book pretending not to be such.

. . . .

A book of poems contains as many words as, or more than, a novel, but it uses ultimately the real, physical space whereon these words appear, in a more intentional, more evident, deeper way.

This is so because in order to transcribe poetical language onto paper it is necessary to translate
typographically the conventions proper to poetic language.

. . . .

The transcription of prose needs few things: punctuation, capitals, various margins, etc.

All these conventions are original and extremely beautiful discoveries, but we don't notice them any more because we use them daily.

Transcription of poetry, a more elaborate language, uses less common signs. The mere need to create the signs fitting the transcription of poetic language, calls our attention to this very simple fact: to write a poem on paper is a different action from writing it on our mind.

. . . .

Poems are songs, the poets repeat. But they don't sing them. They write them.

Poetry is to be said aloud, they repeat. But they don't say it aloud. They publish it.

The fact is, that poetry, as it occurs normally, is written and printed, not sung and spoken, poetry. And with this, poetry has lost nothing.

On the contrary, poetry has gained something: a spatial reality that the so loudly lamented sung and spoken poetries lacked.

THE SPACE

For years, many years, poets have intensively and efficiently exploited the spatial possibilities of poetry.

But only the so-called concrete or, later, visual poetry, has openly declared this.

Verses ending halfway on the page, verses having a wider or a narrower margin, verses being separated from the following one by a bigger or smaller space - all this is exploitation of space.

. . . .

This is not to say that a text is poetry because it uses space in this or that way, but that using space is a characteristic of written poetry.

. . . .

The space is the music of the unsung poetry.

. . . .

The introduction of space into poetry (or rather of poetry into space) is an enormous event of literally incalculable consequences.

One of these consequences is concrete and/or visual poetry. Its birth is not an extravagant event in the history of literature, but the natural, unavoidable development of the spatial reality gained by language since the moment writing was invented.

. . . .

The poetry of the old art does use space, albeit bashfully.

This poetry establishes an inter-subjective communication.

Inter-subjective communication occurs in an abstract, ideal, impalpable space.

. . . .

In the new art (of which concrete poetry is only an example) communication is still inter-subjective, but it occurs in a concrete, real, physical space - the page.

. . . .

A book is a volume in the space.

It is the true ground of the communication that takes place through words - its here and now.

Concrete poetry represents an alternative to poetry.

Books, regarded as autonomous space-time sequences offer an alternative to all existent literary genres.

. . . .

Space exists outside subjectivity.

If two subjects communicate in the space, then space is an element of this communication. Space
modifies this communication. Space imposes its own laws on this communication.

Printed words are imprisoned in the matter of the book.

. . . .

What is more meaningful: the book or the text it contains?

What was first: the chicken or the egg?

. . . .

The old art assumes that printed words are printed on an ideal space.

The new art knows that books exist as objects in an exterior reality, subject to concrete conditions of perception, existence, exchange, consumption, use, etc.

. . . .

The objective manifestation of language can be experienced in an isolated moment and space - the page; or in a sequence of spaces and moments - the book.

. . . .

There is not and will not be new literature any more.

There will be, perhaps, new ways to communicate that will include language or will use language as a basis.

As a medium of communication, literature will always be old literature.

THE LANGUAGE

Language transmits ideas, i.e. mental images.

The starting point of the transmission of mental images is always an intention: we speak to transmit a particular image.

The everyday language and the old art language have this in common: both are intentional, both want to transmit certain mental images.

. . . .

In the old art the meanings of the words are the bearers of the author's intentions.

Just as the ultimate meaning of words is indefinable, so the author's intention is unfathomable.

. . . .

Every intention presupposes a purpose, a utility.

Everyday language is intentional, that is, utilitarian; its function is to transmit ideas and feelings, to explain, to declare, to convince, to invoke, to accuse, etc.

Old art's language is intentional as well, i.e. utilitarian. Both languages differ from one another only in their exterior form.

. . . .

New art's language is radically different from daily language. It neglects intentions and utility, and it returns to itself, it investigates itself, looking for forms, for series of forms that give birth to, couple with, unfold into, space-time sequences.

. . . .

The words in a new book are not the bearers of the message, nor the mouthpieces of the soul, nor the currency of communication.

Those were already named by Hamlet, an avid reader of books: words, words, words.

. . . .

The words of the new book are there not to transmit certain mental images with a certain intention.

They are there to form, together with other signs, a space-time sequence that we identify with the name 'book'.

. . . .

The words in a new book might be the author's own words or someone else's words.

A writer of the new art writes very little or does not write at all.

. . . .

The most beautiful and perfect book in the world is a book with only blank pages, in the same way that the most complete language is that which lies beyond all that the words of a man can say.

Every book of the new art is searching after that book of absolute whiteness, in the same way that every poem searches for silence.

. . . .

Intention is the mother of rhetoric.

. . . .

Words cannot avoid meaning something, but they can be divested of intentionality

A non-intentional language is an abstract language: it doesn't refer to any concrete reality.

Paradox: in order to be able to manifest itself concretely, language must first become abstract.

. . . .

Abstract language means that words are not bound to any particular intention; that the word 'rose' is neither the rose that I see nor the rose that a more or less fictional character claims to see.

In the abstract language of the new art the word 'rose' is the word 'rose'. It means all the roses and it means none of them.

. . . .

How to succeed in making a rose that is not my rose, nor his rose, but everybody's rose, i.e. nobody's rose?

By placing it within a sequential structure (for example a book), so that it momentarily ceases being a rose and becomes essentially an element of the structure.

STRUCTURES

Every word exists as an element of a structure - a phrase, a novel, a telegram.

Or: every word is part of a text.

. . . .

Nobody or nothing exists in isolation: everything is an element of a structure.

Every structure is in its turn an element of another structure.

Everything that exists is a structure.

. . . .

To understand something, is to understand the structure of which it is a part and/or the elements
forming the structure that that something is.

A book consists of various elements, one of which might be a text.

A text that is part of a book isn't necessarily the most essential or important part of that book.

. . . .

A person may go to the bookshop to buy ten red books because this colour harmonises with the other colours in his sitting room, or for any other reason, thereby revealing the irrefutable fact, that books have a colour.

. . . .

In a book of the old art words transmit the author's intention. That's why he chooses them carefully.

In a book of the new art words don't transmit any intention; they're used to form a text which is an element of a book, and it is this book, as a totality, that transmits the author's intention.

. . . .

Plagiarism is the starting point of the creative activity in the new art.

. . . .

Whenever the new art uses an isolated word, then it is in an absolute isolation: books of one single word.

. . . .

Old art's authors have the gift for language, the talent for language, the ease for language.

For new art's authors language is an enigma, a problem; the book hints at ways to solve it.

. . . .

In the old art you write 'I love you' thinking that this phrase means 'I love you'.

(But: what does 'I love you' mean?).

. . . .

In the new art you write 'I love you' being aware that we don't know what this means. You write this phrase as part of a text wherein to write 'I hate you' would come to the same thing.

The important thing is, that this phrase, 'I love you' or 'I hate you', performs a certain function as a text within the structure of the book.

. . . .

In the new art you don't love anybody.

The old art claims to love.

In art you can love nobody. Only in real life can you love someone.

. . . .

Not that the new art lacks passions.

All of it is blood flowing out of the wound that language has inflicted on men.

And it is also the joy of being able to express something with everything, with any thing, with almost nothing, with nothing.

. . . .

The old art chooses, among the literary genres and forms, that one which best fits the author's intention.

The new art uses any manifestation of language, since the author has no other intention than to test the language's ability to mean something.

. . . .

The text of a book in the new art can be a novel as well as a single word, sonnets as well as jokes, love letters as well as weather reports.

. . . .

In the old art, just as the author's intention is ultimately unfathomable and the sense of his words
indefinable, so the understanding of the reader is unquantifiable.

In the new art the reading itself proves that the reader understands.

THE READING

In order to read the old art, knowing the alphabet is enough.

In order to read the new art one must apprehend the book as a structure, identifying its elements and understanding their function.

. . . .

One might read old art in the belief that one understands it, and be wrong.

Such a misunderstanding is impossible in the new art. You can read only if you understand.

. . . .

In the old art all books are read in the same way.

In the new art every book requires a different reading.

. . . .

In the old art, to read the last page takes as much time as to read the first one.

In the new art the reading rhythm changes, quickens, speeds up.

. . . .

In order to understand and to appreciate a book of the old art, it is necessary to read it thoroughly.

In the new art you often do NOT need to read the whole book.

The reading may stop at the very moment you have understood the total structure of the book.

. . . .

The new art makes it possible to read faster than the fast-reading methods.

There are fast-reading methods because writing methods are too slow.

To read a book, is to perceive sequentially its structure.

. . . .

The old art takes no heed of reading.

The new art creates specific reading conditions.

. . . .

The farthest the old art has come to, is to bring into account the readers, which is going too far.

. . . .

The new art doesn't discriminate between its readers; it does not address itself to the book-addicts or try to steal its public away from TV.

. . . .

In order to be able to read the new art, and to understand it, you don't need to spend five years in a Faculty of English.

In order to be appreciated, the books of the new art don't need the sentimental and/or intellectual complicity of the readers in matters of love, politics, psychology, geography, etc.

. . . .

The new art appeals to the ability every man possesses for understanding and creating signs and systems of signs.

This essay was written originally in Spanish. Its title is an allusion to a polemical poem by the Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, El Arte Nuevo de Hacer Comedias or The New Art of Making Comedies.

It has been published for the first time in Plural 41, Mexico City, 1975. Later, a slightly shortened English version was published in Kontexts 6/7, Amsterdam 1975. This version has been used for all ulterior publications and is also used, except for some minor corrections, in this book. The same text was included in the catalogue Contents published on the occasion of my exhibition at Remont Gallery, Warsaw, 1976. It also appeared in the European issue of Art Contemporary 9, III, 1, San Francisco, 1977. A Polish translation was published in Linia, February-March, Warsaw, 1977.

I've used this text as a basis for lectures in the CAYC (Centro de Arte y Comunicación), Buenos Aires, 1978, and in the Pinacoteca do Estado, Sao Paolo, 1978.

(Note by Ulises Carrión on Second Thoughts.
Void Distributors: Amsterdam, 1980. p. 6)

El polvo del deseo - Gonzalo Rojas

2009-07-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Por mucho que la mano se me llene de ti
para escribirte, para acariciarte
como cuando te quise
arrancar esos pechos que fueron mi obsesión en la terraza
donde no había nadie sino tú con tu cuerpo,
tú con tu corazón y tu hermosura,
y con tu sangre adentro que te salía blanca
reseca, por el polvo del deseo:

Oh, por mucho que tú hayas sido mi perdición
hasta volverme lengua de tu boca,
ya todo es imposible.
Allá abajo los barcos me esperan. Con su ruido
me estoy partiendo de todas las cosas,
de tu carácter y de tu belleza.

Me estoy partiendo de eso que eres tú
hoy que tu cuerpo sabe a quemadura
y se te escapa el fuego por la herida.

De eso me estoy partiendo, y empiezo a despegar
con la primera luz, cortando el agua inmóvil
que se parece al filo de tu piel, cuando sopla
sobre ella el viento de mi desesperación.

Hubo una vez un hombre. Hubo una vez
una mujer vestida con tu cuerpo desnudo
que palpitaba adentro de todas mis palabras,
los vellos, los destellos
de una mujer sellada por mi propia locura,
que tenía tus mismos labios, tus mismos ojos.

Pero de esa mujer no quedas sino tú
sin labios y sin ojos.
Para mí ya no quedas sino como la forma
de una cama que vuela por el mundo
y que nunca podré compartir con tu encanto,
porque estaré partiendo cada día de ti,
más lejos y más hondo en tu hermosura.

Tú llorarás a mares
tres negros días, ya pulverizada
por mi recuerdo, por mis ojos fijos
que te verán llorar detrás de las cortinas de tu alcoba,
sin inmutarse, como dos espinas,
porque la espina es la flor de la nada;
y me estarás llorando sin saber por qué lloras,
sin saber quién se ha ido:
si eres tú, si soy yo, si el abismo es un beso.

Todo será de golpe
como tu llanto encima de mi cara vacía.
Correrás por las calles. Me mirarás sin verme
en la espalda de todos los varones que marchan al trabajo.
Entrarás en los cines para oírme en la sombra del murmullo. Abrirás
la mampara estridente: allí estarán las mesas esperando mi risa
tan ronca como el vaso de cerveza, servido y desolado.

Quiero que aquí te acabes
con tu cuerpo dotado de pelaje divino
que se te salga el cuerpo por la espina del llanto.
Tu cuerpo, que era como la flor del movimiento.

Que te mueras de mí. Quiero que aquí te acabes
sin darte mi semilla.

de La miseria del hombre, 1948.

Espejo del espejo - Bernardo Schiavetta

2009-07-16T00:34:00.000-07:00

espejo del reflejo gemelo y desparejo
morada sin Narciso ausencia alucinada
expiro si apareces espejo del vampiro
reflejo tu reflejo ambos somos espejo
miro como tú miras miras tú como miro
mirada ante mirada ninguno yo tú nada
enigma somos ambos remedo y paradigma
paradigma y remedo ambos somos enigma
nada tú yo ninguno mirada ante mirada
miro como tú miras miras tú como miro
espejo somos ambos reflejo tu reflejo
vampiro del espejo apareces si expiro
alucinada ausencia Narciso sin morada
desparejo y gemelo reflejo del espejo

de Fórmulas para Cratilo

Madrid: Visor, 1990

Paterson W.C.W / H.G.M.

2009-07-14T14:36:00.001-07:00

Vía Facebook me entero de una excelente noticia: Paterson de William Carlos Williams en traducción de Hugo García Manríquez está por aparecer en México, en la editorial Aldus. Este no es un logro menor. El extenso poema-mundo compuesto por cinco libros/cantos y un fragmento, es uno de los hitos de la lírica norteamericana del siglo veinte, valorado especialmente por quienes nos interesamos en la poesía de sesgo experimental. Desde aquí mi reconocimiento a la labor traductora de Hugo, que es, además, un poeta más que disfrutable. Y aquí un fragmento de su Paterson.

2009-06-21T22:27:00.001-07:00

Ya está circulando el número 158 de la revista Tierra Adentro. Esta entrega, dedicada al documental mexicano, contiene además un dossier sobre traducción en el que, al igual que varios ensayistas, participamos "siete jóvenes poetas": Hugo García Manríquez, Sergio Ernesto Ríos, Cristina Rascón, Rodrigo Flores Sánchez, Sergio Ugalde, Isami Romero y su servilleta. Mi colaboración al dossier fue la traducción de We Make, un poema en prosa de Brian Kim Stefans aparecido en su libro What Is Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers.

para que no le digan, para que no le cuenten...

2009-06-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

... póngase al día en los pormenores de la polémica, irregular y legitimamente cuestionada designación de Virgilio Muñoz como director del Centro Cultural Tijuana en todosomosunmundopequeño

y también en el blog del escritor Heriberto Yépez.

2009-06-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Alba (muchísimas gracias) también
colgó en su blog Dele(I)te y Exit.

Dele(I)te

2009-06-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

Un poema con lemming destripado
en el número 55 de la revista Luvina.

Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place

2009-04-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

video

Dislocated Writing: Luso-Hispanic Literature Beyond Borders - 6th Annual UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Conference

2009-04-07T23:54:00.000-07:00

(clic to enlarge)

The Sixth Annual UCLA Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Conference will explore the influence of spatial and cultural displacement in writing and artistic production of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking authors. Variations on this theme include but are not limited to: the reconstruction of cultural identities from a distance, authors settled in foreign countries or impacted by time spent in other countries, immigration and emigration, exile, cultural agency, hegemony, nationalism, imperialism, transnationalism, mestizaje, syncretism, hybridity, travel literature, border and frontier literature.

Cost: Free and Open to the public.
Download the program here.

Thursday and Friday, April 23- 24, 2009
9:30 AM - 6:00 PM
306 Royce Hall

Raúl Zurita at UCLA

2009-04-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

(clic to enlarge)

Raúl Zurita (Santiago, Chile, 1950) is arguably the most powerful poetic voice in Latin America today. His compelling rhythms combine epic and lyric tones, public and most intimate themes, grief and joy. Despite having been arrested and tortured under the Pinochet dictatorship, Zurita’s prevailing attitude in his Dantesque trilogy Purgatorio (1979), Anteparaíso (1982), and La vida nueva (1994) is a deep love for everything and everybody in the world. The spectacular avant-garde side of his poetry was seen in the United States when planes—wrote in Spanish—one of his poems in the skies over Manhattan in 1982. It is no accident that Zurita has been translated into Bengali, Chinese, English, German, Italian, and Russian. Zurita will read from his works and will participate in a round table discussion with Prof. Verónica Cortínez, Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Prof. Manfred Engelbert, University of Göttingen, Germany; Prof. Jacobo Sefamí, UC Irvine; and Paula Thorrington, doctoral candidate.

Free and open to the public. The event will be conducted in Spanish. English translations will be available. Reception follows.

Thursday, April 23, 2009
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
306 Royce Hall
Herbert Morris Room

understanding procrastination 5

2009-04-06T11:04:00.001-07:00

"Procrastination" Tales Of Mere Existence

Bembo's Zoo: Poesía concreta para niños - Concrete poetry for kids

2009-04-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

have fun

The Turning - Philip Levine

2009-04-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Unknown faces in the street
And winter coming on. I
Stand in the last moments of
The city, no more a child,
Only a man, -- one who has
Looked upon his own nakedness
Without shame, and in defeat
Has seen nothing to bless.
Touched once, like a plum, I turned
Rotten in the meat, or like
The plum blossom I never
Saw, hard at the edges, burned
At the first entrance of life,
And so endured, unreckoned,
Untaken, with nothing to give.
The first Jew was God; the second
Denied him; I am alive.

from The Simple Truth, 1995

El faro - Juan José Arreola

2009-03-26T00:40:00.001-07:00

Lo que hace Genaro es horrible. Se sirve de armas imprevistas. Nuestra situación se vuelve asquerosa.

Ayer, en la mesa, nos contó una historia de cornudo. Era en realidad graciosa, pero como si Amelia y yo pudiéramos reírnos, Genaro la estropeó con sus grandes carcajadas falsas. Decía: "¿Es que hay algo más chistoso?" Y se pasaba la mano por la frente, encogiendo los dedos, como buscándose algo. Volvía a reír: "¿Cómo se sentirá llevar cuernos?" No tomaba en cuenta para nada nuestra confusión.

Amelia estaba desesperada. Yo tenía ganas de insultar a Genaro, de decirle toda la verdad a gritos, de salirme corriendo y no volver nunca. Pero como siempre, algo me detenía. Amelia tal vez, aniquilada en la situación intolerable.

Hace ya algún tiempo que la actitud de Genaro nos sorprendía. Se iba volviendo cada vez más tonto. Aceptaba explicaciones increíbles, daba lugar y tiempo para nuestras más descabelladas entrevistas. Hizo diez veces la comedia del viaje, pero siempre volvió el día previsto. Nos absteníamos inútilmente en su ausencia. De regreso, traía pequeños regalos y nos estrechaba de modo inmoral, besándonos casi el cuello, teniéndonos excesivamente contra su pecho. Amelia llegó a desfallecer de repugnancia entre semejantes abrazos.

Al principio hacíamos las cosas con temor, creyendo correr un gran riesgo. La impresión de que Genaro iba a descubrirnos en cualquier momento, teñía nuestro amor de miedo y de vergüenza. La cosa era clara y limpia en este sentido. El drama flotaba realmente sobre nosotros, dando dignidad a la culpa. Genaro lo ha echado a perder. Ahora estamos envueltos en algo turbio, denso y pesado. Nos amamos con desgana, hastiados, como esposos. Hemos adquirido poco a poco la costumbre insípida de tolerar a Genaro. Su presencia es insoportable porque no nos estorba; más bien facilita la rutina y provoca el cansancio.

A veces, el mensajero que nos trae las provisiones dice que la supresión de este faro es un hecho. Nos alegramos Amelia y yo, en secreto. Genaro se aflige visiblemente: "¿A dónde iremos?", nos dice. "¡Somos aquí tan felices!" Suspira. Luego, buscando mis ojos: "Tú vendrás con nosotros, a dondequiera que vayamos". Y se queda mirando el mar con melancolía.

de Confabulario (1952)

understanding procrastination 4

2009-03-23T00:25:00.000-07:00

Um, Uh - Brian Kim Stefans

2009-03-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

(audio)

Um, they’re, um, uh, yeah everybody, uh, staring at you? Uh, you’re, um, uh, the only black person here? Uh, I don’t, uh, um, like those shows. Um, you’re, uh, a little, er, tipsy? Uh, your, uh, wall-eye is, yeah, acting up. You, uh, have a little issue with, er, um, your shorts. You, er, could have used, ah, a little more, uh, deodorant. Uh, you, er, are making a lot of references to, uh, hmm, your mother? Um, I think, er, there’s a little, uh, activity on your cheek there? Um, are those poppy seeds, er, seem caught in, er, your teeth. Er, I think, uh, you should put your hand back, yeah. Your lunch, um, seems to be, er, coming back? Those, um, trousers are, uh, a bit high tide. Um, are you, er, a bit, uh, shy with men? Um, I think you’re, er, supposed to leave a, yeah, leave a tip. Um, I think, er, you, um, have a little hang-up with T.S. Eliot? Uh, how can I say this, er, you have a little, uh, thingy, er, uh, yeah, on your thingy, uh huh. Uh, that, er, pimple... yeah. Er, uh, I think that, um, poem was written, er, in, uh, 1939? Um, I think that, er, screensaver is, uh, a little, yeah, offensive, um, to, you know, um, short people? Um, I think you could, er, maybe, uh, buy me a drink now? You should probably, er, uh, cross your legs? I think , um, you could, er, talk a little, uh, yeah, quieter. Um, that, er, you just sort of, uh, spit on me? Aren’t you, um, a little short, uh, to be a storm trooper? Um, I think, er, you should, uh, cover up that, yeah, scar? Um, isn’t that, er, uh, like, enough cigarettes for a night? Um, er, didn’t, uh, Vito Acconci do that already? Um, aren’t there, er, places you could, yeah, put that? Um, er, your, uh, accent, er, yeah, nobody can understand you. Um, is that, er, toothpaste on your, uh, collar, um? Uh, I think that’s, er, uh, your brother, yeah, stopping traffic over there. I could be wrong. Um, isn’t that, er, a little, uh, obviously pretentious. Er, uh, wasn’t, er, Keats born, uh, a century before Swinburne? Er, I, uh, think you’ve been, uh, yeah, let other people talk a bit, huh? Er, uh, I don’t think, er, you should be clipping your toenails just this second, no. You, uh, have a little, uh, whip cream? Uh, isn’t your vocal style, er, a bit, er, uh, circa 1978 Patti Smith? Um, isn’t , uh, playing with the fonts, er, a bit, uh, hm, yeah, old? Um, I think there’s, uh, a bit too much, er, (coughs) garlic in this (coughs). Um, I think your, er, yeah, is, uh, hanging a little low. Uh, I think, um, you’re, uh, yeah, aren’t you slurring? Um, isn’t that, er, a, um, long-winded explanation? Um, don’t you owe me, eh, fifty dollars? Um, I think, er, you, uh, yeah, probably a little gas. Um, aren’t you just, er kind of, uh, gossiping? Isn’t that, like, uh, er, anti-Semitic? You seem to be, uh, a little bit, er, shiny today, yeah. You have your, uh, elbows on the, er, yeah, right. Um, don’t you think, er, you should, uh, stop, yeah, that’s dancing? Um, why do you, er, keep shaking your leg, uh? Er, I think there’s a bit, er, much crotch action there? Um, there, are, uh, women in this room, er, maybe your jokes are a bit, er, um, misogynistic. Uh, are you, uh, something of a, uh, er, mouth breather? I think you should try, uh, a little bit of this, er, lip balm, huh? Uh, that isn’t, er, the, um, way to make friends. This is, um, a, er, a funeral? Your, um, flies unzipped? Um, uh, you seem to be, er, repeating, er, yeah, yourself. Isn’t that, uh, joke a bit, uh, Regis Philbin? Er, isn’t that, um, a bit of your, um, yeah, sticking out? Um, you, you’re, uh, um, foaming? Um, you, er, should probably be, uh, a little more, uh, subtle about gay people? Um, uh, I think you, uh, should answer your cellular? Er, your face is, uh, em, just beat red? Um, you are, er, uh, yeah I think, chronically depressed?

from What is Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers.
Factory School, 2006.

Casa de cuervos - Blanca Varela

2009-03-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

porque te alimenté con esta realidad
mal cocida
por tantas y tan pobres flores del mal
por este absurdo vuelo a ras de pantano
ego te absolvo de mí
laberinto hijo mío

no es tuya la culpa
ni mía
pobre pequeño mío
del que hice este impecable retrato
forzando la oscuridad del día
párpados de miel
y la mejilla constelada
cerrada a cualquier roce
y la hermosísima distancia
de tu cuerpo
tu náusea es mía
la heredaste como heredan los peces
la asfixia
y el color de tus ojos
es también el color de mi ceguera
bajo el que sombras tejen
sombras y tentaciones
y es mía también la huella
de tu talón estrecho
de arcángel
apenas pasado en la entreabierta ventana
y nuestra
para siempre
la música extranjera
de los cielos batientes
ahora leoncillo
encarnación de mi amor
juegas con mis huesos
y te ocultas entre tu belleza
ciego sordo irredento
casi saciado y libre
con tu sangre que ya no deja lugar
para nada ni nadie

aquí me tienes como siempre
dispuesta a la sorpresa
de tus pasos
a todas las primaveras que inventas
y destruyes
a tenderme -nada infinita-
sobre el mundo
hierba ceniza peste fuego
a lo que quieras por una mirada tuya
que ilumine mis restos
porque así es este amor
que nada comprende
y nada puede
bebes el filtro y te duermes
en ese abismo lleno de ti
música que no ves
colores dichos
largamente explicados al silencio
mezclados como se mezclan los sueños
hasta ese torpe gris
que es despertar
en la gran palma de dios
calva vacía sin extremos
y allí te encuentras
sola y perdida en tu alma
sin más obstáculo que tu cuerpo
sin más puerta que tu cuerpo
así este amor
uno solo y el mismo
con tantos nombres
que a ninguno responde
y tú mirándome
como si no me conocieras
marchándote
como se va la luz del mundo
sin promesas
y otra vez este prado
este prado de negro fuego abandonado
otra vez esta casa vacía
que es mi cuerpo
a donde no has de volver

Blanca Varela
(Lima, Perú, 10 de agosto de 1926 - 12 de marzo de 2009)

Vito Acconci - READ THIS WORD...

2009-03-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

READ THIS WORD THEN READ THIS WORD READ THIS WORD NEXT READ THIS WORD NOW SEE ONE WORD SEE ONE WORD NEXT SEE ONE WORD NOW AND THEN SEE ONE WORD AGAIN LOOK AT THREE WORDS HERE LOOK AT THREE WORDS NOW LOOK AT THREE WORDS NOW TOO TAKE IN FIVE WORDS AGAIN TAKE IN FIVE WORDS SO TAKE IN FIVE WORDS DO IT NOW SEE THESE WORDS AT A GLANCE SEE THESE WORDS AT THIS GLANCE AT THIS GLANCE HOLD THIS LINE IN VIEW HOLD THIS LINE IN ANOTHER VIEW AND IN A THIRD VIEW SPOT SEVEN LINES AT ONCE THEN TWICE THEN THRICE THEN A FOURTH TIME A FIFTH A SIXTH A SEVENTH AN EIGHTH

from Language to Cover a Page:
The Early Writings of Vito Acconci.
Craig Dworkin, ed. Cambridge: MIT, 2006.

Charles Bernstein - A Mosaic For Convergence

2009-03-03T19:54:00.000-08:00

have fun

Pound is news that stays news

2009-03-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

"A Hypervortext of Ezra Pound's Canto LXXXI"

A lecture on Carlos Fuentes by Maarten van Delden

2009-03-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

La muerte avla por tu boka: Lecture by Jacobo Sefamí

2009-03-02T00:18:00.000-08:00

Racimos

2009-02-25T07:55:00.000-08:00

Un poema preguntón en el número 130 (enero-febrero 2009) de Crítica, revista cultural de la Universidad Autónoma de Puebla.

Reseña del número en la sección de revistas del Periódico de Poesía.

2009-02-22T22:05:00.000-08:00

Enfermo

a borbotones
rojo
(pájaro rasgando)
este dolor me sangra
ángel
que se aísla
en la más lluvia de las tristes
rojo
brota
a borbotones
en la más lluvia de las tristes
que se aísla
ángel
este dolor me sangra
(pájaro rasgando)
rojo
a borbotones
en la más triste de las lluvias
yerto
yace

Minerva Margarita Villarreal.

Adamar. México: Verdehalago, 1998.

The Walkmen - In the New Year

2009-02-19T22:10:00.001-08:00

I can feel it's gonna be good

Vito Acconci on Vice TV (Art Talk!)

2009-02-14T10:37:00.000-08:00

In this six-part interview Acconci challenges conventional notions of space by addressing his own trajectory as a conceptual poet, visual artist, and architect.

Poems for the Millennium Launch & Reading at Beyond Baroque

2009-02-12T06:57:00.000-08:00

(via Jerome Rothemberg's blog)

On 13 February, Friday - 7:30 PM Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles will host a launch for Poems for the Millennium Vol III: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry, with editors JEROME ROTHENBERG & JEFFREY ROBINSON, featuring the Editors with WILL ALEXANDER, SIMONE FORTI, DAVID MATLIN, and DOUGLAS MESSERLI.

Like its two twentieth-century predecessors, Poems for the Millennium, volumes 1 and 2, this gathering sets forth a globally decentered approach to the poetry of the preceding century from a radically experimental and visionary perspective. The book’s 900 pages offer a range of poets and movements and a series of links between romanticism and the multiple modernisms to which it gave rise – from canonical poets like Blake, Goethe, Shelley, Hölderlin, Hugo, Pushkin, Whitman, Dickinson, and Baudelaire to lesser known but equally innovative figures like Dionysios Solomos (Greece), Cyprian Norwid (Poland), Sousandrade (Brazil), Adah Isaacs Menken (U.S.A.), Arno Holz (Germany), and Yosano Akiko (Japan). In the spirit of Rothenberg’s earlier volumes, Poems for the Millennium, volume 3 also includes ancient and tribal works newly recovered in the nineteenth century and numerous experiments with written and spoken language that form a dynamic linkage with the experimental poetry of a full-blown modernism and postmodernism still to come.

Beyond Baroque is at 681 Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles, and the Millennium event, with copies of the book available, is free and open to the public.

2009-02-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

Presentación

Deniz a mansalva
Fondo Editorial Tierra Adentro

Trece escritores mexicanos discurren y se solazan en algún fragmento o en el gran corpus de la obra poética, narrativa, ensayística y de traducción de Gerardo Deniz.

Participan: Eduardo Lizalde, Pablo Mora, Josué Ramírez y Jorge Solís Arenazas

Martes 17 de febrero, 19 horas
Sala Adamo Boari, Palacio de Bellas Artes
Av. Juárez y Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas s/n, Centro Histórico

Compilación: Josué Ramírez
Prólogo: Mónica de la Torre

Textos incluidos en el libro:

Les iba yo diciendo, de Daniel Saldaña
Lo raro: más que orar es arar, de Amaranta Caballero
Todo empezó en el oído, de Eduardo Padilla
Deniz, el repente, de Zazil Collins
Una naturaleza híbrida y racional, de Rodrigo Castillo
El teatro de la carne, de Santiago Matías
Visita a tientas por el mercado de sustancias pegajosas, de Jorge Solís Arenazas
Lo que contamos está mal escrito, de Rodrigo Flores Sánchez
Quien lea, entenderá, de Minerva Reynosa
Idioma en tránsito en la inserción orgánica, de Hugo García Manríquez
Pensar con la lengua, de Luis Jorge Boone
Norte, de Feli Dávalos

Membrete girondiano que se me impone a mediatarde en un café de UCLA

2009-02-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

Ningún Stradivarius comparable en forma, ni en resonancia, a las caderas de ciertas colegialas.

2009-02-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

When, in love, I solicit a look, what is profoundly unsatisfying and always missing is that --You never look at me from the place from which I see you.

Jacques Lacan

Raymond Queneau - Cent mille milliards de poèmes

2009-02-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

mueve el cursor sobre el soneto hasta generar
(¿crear?) 100,000,000,000,000 de poemas

2009-02-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

Brian Dettmer: Book Autopsies

2009-02-02T22:51:00.001-08:00

Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside,
creating complex layered three-dimensional sculptures.

Alain Badiou in Southern California

2009-02-02T19:34:00.000-08:00

Zizek & Badiou

Feb 3: Negation and Formalization in the Avant-gardes of the 20th Century (Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, 7:30)

Feb. 4: Life and Immortality: Body-of-Truth and Incorporation (5:00, Royce 314, UCLA)

Feb. 6: Toward a New Signification of the Sartrean Idea of ‘Engaged Artist’ (Cal Arts; 6:00 pm in room F200)

Feb. 7: Can the Word ‘Jew’ be a Philosophical Concept? (3:00 135 Humanities Instructional Building, UC Irvine)

"Into the Dusk-Charged Air" - John Ashbery

2009-02-02T05:05:00.000-08:00

Far from the Rappahannock, the silent
Danube moves along toward the sea.
The brown and green Nile rolls slowly
Like the Niagara's welling descent.
Tractors stood on the green banks of the Loire
Near where it joined the Cher.
The St. Lawrence prods among black stones
And mud. But the Arno is all stones.
Wind ruffles the Hudson's
Surface. The Irawaddy is overflowing.
But the yellowish, gray Tiber
Is contained within steep banks. The Isar
Flows too fast to swim in, the Jordan's water
Courses over the flat land. The Allegheny and its boats
Were dark blue. The Moskowa is
Gray boats. The Amstel flows slowly.
Leaves fall into the Connecticut as it passes
Underneath. The Liffey is full of sewage,
Like the Seine, but unlike
The brownish-yellow Dordogne.
Mountains hem in the Colorado
And the Oder is very deep, almost
As deep as the Congo is wide.
The plain banks of the Neva are
Gray. The dark Saône flows silently.
And the Volga is long and wide
As it flows across the brownish land. The Ebro
Is blue, and slow. The Shannon flows
Swiftly between its banks. The Mississippi
Is one of the world's longest rivers, like the Amazon.
It has the Missouri for a tributary.
The Harlem flows amid factories
And buildings. The Nelson is in Canada,
Flowing. Through hard banks the Dubawnt
Forces its way. People walk near the Trent.
The landscape around the Mohawk stretches away;
The Rubicon is merely a brook.
In winter the Main
Surges; the Rhine sings its eternal song.
The Rhône slogs along through whitish banks
And the Rio Grande spins tales of the past.
The Loir bursts its frozen shackles
But the Moldau's wet mud ensnares it.
The East catches the light.
Near the Escaut the noise of factories echoes
And the sinuous Humboldt gurgles wildly.
The Po too flows, and the many-colored
Thames. Into the Atlantic Ocean
Pours the Garonne. Few ships navigate
On the Housatonic, but quite a few can be seen
On the Elbe. For centuries
The Afton has flowed.
                                 If the Rio Negro
Could abandon its song, and the Magdalena
The jungle flowers, the Tagus
Would still flow serenely, and the Ohio
Abrade its slate banks. The tan Euphrates would
Sidle silently across the world. The Yukon
Was choked with ice, but the Susquehanna still pushed
Bravely along. The Dee caught the day's last flares
Like the Pilcomayo's carrion rose.
The Peace offered eternal fragrance
Perhaps, but the Mackenzie churned livid mud
Like tan chalk-marks. Near where
The Brahmaputra slapped swollen dikes
And the Pechora? The São Francisco
Skulks amid gray, rubbery nettles. The Liard's
Reflexes are slow, and the Arkansas erodes
Anthracite hummocks. The Paraná stinks.
The Ottawa is light emerald green
Among grays. Better that the Indus fade
In steaming sands! Let the Brazos
Freeze solid! And the Wabash turn to a leaden
Cinder of ice! The Marañón is too tepid, we must
Find a way to freeze it hard. The Ural
Is freezing slowly in the blasts. The black Yonne
Congeals nicely. And the Petit-Morin
Curls up on the solid earth. The Inn
Does not remember better times, and the Merrimack's
Galvanized. The Ganges is liquid snow by now;
The Vyatka's ice-gray. The once-molten Tennessee s
Curdled. The Japurá is a pack of ice. Gelid
The Columbia's gray loam banks. The Don's merely
A giant icicle. The Niger freezes, slowly.
The interminable Lena plods on
But the Purus' mercurial waters are icy, grim
With cold. The Loing is choked with fragments of ice.
The Weser is frozen, like liquid air.
And so is the Kama. And the beige, thickly flowing
Tocantins. The rivers bask in the cold.
The stern Uruguay chafes its banks,
A mass of ice. The Hooghly is solid
Ice. The Adour is silent, motionless.
The lovely Tigris is nothing but scratchy ice
Like the Yellowstone, with its osier-clustered banks.
The Mekong is beginning to thaw out a little
And the Donets gurgles beneath the
Huge blocks of ice. The Manzanares gushes free.
The Illinois darts through the sunny air again.
But the Dnieper is still ice-bound. Somewhere
The Salado propels irs floes, but the Roosevelt's
Frozen. The Oka is frozen solider
Than the Somme. The Minho slumbers
In winter, nor does the Snake
Remember August. Hilarious, the Canadian
Is solid ice. The Madeira slavers
Across the thawing fields, and the Plata laughs.
The Dvina soaks up the snow. The Sava's
Temperature is above freezing. The Avon
Carols noiselessly. The Drôme presses
Grass banks; the Adige's frozen
Surface is like gray pebbles.

Birds circle the Ticino. In winter
The Var was dark blue, unfrozen. The
Thwaite, cold, is choked with sandy ice;
The Ardèche glistens feebly through the freezing rain.

porque ya no importa

2009-02-01T19:09:00.000-08:00

Hace una quincena o un mes que mi mujer de ahora eligió vivir en otro país. No hubo reproches ni quejas. Ella es dueña de su estómago y de su vagina. Cómo no comprenderla si ambos compartimos, casi exclusivamente, el hambre.

Juan Carlos Onetti. Cuando ya no importe. Madrid: Alfaguara, 1993

Frank Film (1973) - Frank Mouris

2009-02-01T17:49:00.001-08:00

In this animated short film Frank Mouris reads a list of words starting with the letter "f". This sound track is interwoven with the sound of his reading his autobiography. The visual is an animated collage of photos collected from magazines.

Frank made the film with Caroline Mouris. The soundtrack was created by Tony Schwartz. The movie won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Animated Films.

(from Wikipedia)

understanding procrastination 3

2009-02-01T17:37:00.000-08:00

I'm nervous. I have to turn in a paper tomorrow. Seven pages. I know. It's not a long paper, but it has to be good. Spotless. & I haven't written anything, not even one page. I don't know why. I'm nervous. I hate this shit. I need to overcome writing anxiety. I rather blog. Blogging can be soothing sometimes.

Libido of Benjamino (1994) - Ivan Maximov

2009-02-01T16:05:00.001-08:00

(via Dadanoias)

More cool Russian stuff ... After watching this uncanny animated film I became a huge fan of Ivan Maximov. Some of his videos are available at his website.

Symposium: The Book as Such in the Russian Avant-Garde

2009-02-01T15:58:00.000-08:00

Thursday, February 5, 2009
9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Museum Lecture Hall
Getty Center

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910–1917, this one-day symposium brings together scholars and artists in fields from art history to literature to explore the Russian avant-garde's revolution of the book. Talks and a roundtable will address the deliberately crude materials, the newly invented poetic language called zaum' ("beyonsense"), and the visual and literary tensions between parodic humor and apocalypse, the primitive and the urban, the sacred and the profane. Speakers will also consider the influence of the Russian avant-garde book on visual poetry and the aesthetics of book production in the later decades of the twentieth century.

Symposium Speakers
Nina Gurianova, Northwestern University
Johanna Drucker, University of Virginia
Brian Reed, University of Washington
Mark D. Steinberg, University of Illinois
Edward Kasinec, New York Public Library
Jane Sharp, Rutgers University
Moderator: Nancy Perloff, Getty Research Institute

Roundtable Speakers
Craig Dworkin, University of Utah
Éva Forgács, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
Liz Kotz, University of California, Riverside
Timothy Benson, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Explodity: An Evening of Transrational Sound Poetry

2009-02-01T14:57:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, February 4, 2009, The Getty Center

Reception and Exhibition Viewing 5:00–6:45 p.m. Getty Research Institute Exhibition Gallery

Russian Futurist Zaum’ and Contemporary Sound Poetry
7:00–8:45 p.m. Museum Lecture Hall

This event is a rare opportunity to hear dramatic readings by Oleg Minin of Russian Futurist zaum’ (“beyonsense”) and performances by Christian Bök and Steve McCaffery of their own contemporary sound poetry. Gerald Janecek, an expert on Russian avant-garde poetry, introduces the evening. By invoking the revolutionary zaum’ of the great poets Velimir Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh, this evening’s performance explores the link between early sound experiments and what came to be known, in the post-World War II era, as sound poetry—a movement very much alive today. This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Tango with Cows: Book Art of the Russian Avant-Garde, 1910–1917

The Job

2009-01-28T15:34:00.001-08:00

Dislocated Writing: Luso-Hispanic Literature Beyond Borders

2009-01-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

The graduate students of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Los Angeles, invite you to submit abstracts for the Sixth Annual UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Conference to be held on April 23rd and 24th.

The conference will explore the influence of spatial and cultural displacement in writing and artistic production of Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking authors. Variations on this theme include but are not limited to: the reconstruction of cultural identities from a distance, authors settled in foreign countries or impacted by time spent in other countries, immigration and emigration, exile, cultural agency, hegemony, nationalism, imperialism, transnationalism, mestizaje, syncretism, hybridity, travel literature, border and frontier literature.

We encourage the submissions of papers from any related field of Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Linguistics, Film, Art, Women’s Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, Ethnic/Cultural Studies, History, Queer Studies, and Comparative Literature. Papers may be presented in Portuguese, Spanish, or English.

Abstracts should be approximately 250 words in length. The abstract should consist only of the title of the proposed paper and the paper proposal itself. Please do not include any personal information (name or institution) in the abstract itself. Please include in your abstract any audiovisual technology that you will require for presentation (Mac or PC laptop, projector, screen, etc.).

Paper presentations must not exceed 20 minutes (7-8 double-spaced pages in Times New Roman 12 pt font).

Please submit your abstract as an attachment via e-mail to dislocated@humnet.ucla.edu by February 15th. The e-mail should include your name, institutional affiliation, paper title, e-mail address, and phone number.

Submission and acceptance of your paper for presentation implies a commitment on your part to attend the conference. Participants will be notified of acceptance via e-mail by February 28th.

2008-12-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

-No obstante- seguía diciendo Mao-, el amor también admite un rodeo, y sólo uno: la acción. Porque el amor, que no tiene explicaciones, tiene de todos modos pruebas. Claro que no son exactamente una dilación, porque las pruebas son lo único que tiene el amor. Y por lentas y complicadas que sean son inmediatas también. Las pruebas valen tanto como el amor, no porque sean lo mismo ni equivalentes, sino porque abren una perspectiva a otra faz de la vida: a la acción.

César Aira. La prueba. Era: México, 2002.

Playas

2008-12-15T07:45:00.001-08:00

Un poema en el tardíamente aparecido Anuario de Poesía Mexicana 2007 del Fondo de Cultura Económica, a cargo de Julián Herbert.

Cómprenlo; la selección de textos y prólogo de Julián son verdaderamente notables.

Caza

2008-12-14T21:42:00.002-08:00

un poema en el número 154 (noviembre 2008) de Tierra Adentro

understanding procrastination 2

2008-12-14T20:06:00.001-08:00

lo ideal es enemigo de lo posible

understanding procrastination

2008-12-14T10:42:00.002-08:00

¿por qué todo parece salvable a las 8 de la mañana --el café humeante-- mientras que dos horas depués todo vuelve a enredarse en la imposibilidad?

Oración del escritor de papers (draft)

2008-12-13T12:28:00.003-08:00

Donde escribiste entendimiento discurriendo,
confieso que leí entendimiento escurriendo.
Perdona ese fatídico misreading, San Ignacio.

Amén

tema para bolero chafa

2008-12-13T08:48:00.005-08:00

ya me aburrí de contar lo que pasó. y tampoco quiero escuchar tus dramas. sentémonos frente a frente a ver cómo nos desgasta el silencio.

when I was trying to explain something supposedly cool

2008-12-13T08:19:00.001-08:00

--oh, that's so nineties, Román!

(sigh)

tijuanología

2008-12-10T23:46:00.003-08:00

haina (vulgo jaina) viene de honey, no de hiena

-Lorena Mancilla

Key Terms in Syntax and Syntactic Theory - Claudia Parodi & Silvia Luraghi - November 3rd, 4:30 pm

2008-10-24T20:15:00.001-07:00

In Vino Veritas: A Symposium On Wine And The Influence Of Bacchus From Classical Antiquity Through The Eighteenth Century

2008-10-20T22:42:00.002-07:00

By the time of Pliny the Elder, in vino veritas (“in wine, truth”) had already attained the status of aphorism, having made its earliest appearance in the writings of the Greek poet Alcaeus. Beyond the reaches of the Greco-Roman world, wine has also had a long history. Its fortunes may be traced around the globe through the medieval and early modern periods when trade in wine increasingly linked diverse cultures, the social uses and symbolic associations of wine proliferated, and Bacchus made his appearance on numerous stages, in images, and in a wide range of other texts and contexts.

The Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (CEMERS) at Binghamton University invites papers for a symposium to be held on the Binghamton University campus, April 24–25, 2009. Papers may address any area of scholarship concerning wine, its symbolic import, its appearance in or impact on cultural production (from painting to poetry), and its effects—social, political, economic, therapeutic or remedial. Papers are also welcome on Dionysus/Bacchus, the god of wine, from classical antiquity to the eighteenth century. We encourage submissions in a broad range of disciplines, methodologies, and perspectives. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

The production and consumption of wine
The ritual use of wine (social, political, religious)
The effects of wine in thought and discourse
Wine and its associations with disease
The medicinal use of wine
Wine in trade and commerce
Wine in the economy and culture of monasteries
Wine and conviviality
Wine in court culture
Wine in folk culture
Wine in myth
Wine in prose and poetry
Wine in song
Wine and lust
Wine and allegory
Bacchus, the god of wine, as an allegorical figure
Bacchus in text
Bacchus in the visual arts
Bacchus on stage
Wine in Jewish culture
Wine in the Islamic world
Inebriation and the law
Wine and archaeological study

Proposals for individual papers (20 minutes maximum) should be no more than 500 words in length, and may be sent either as an attachment in Microsoft Word format or as text within an e-mail message to cemers@binghamton.edu (“Re: In Vino Veritas Conference). Those wishing to submit a hard copy should forward it to: CEMERS [ATTN.: In Vino Veritas Conference], Binghamton University , P.O. Box 6000 , Binghamton , NY 13902-6000 . We also welcome proposals for integrated panels. Panel organizers should describe the organizing principle of the panel and send abstracts, names, and affiliations of each participant. A panel should consist of no more than three papers, each twenty minutes in length. Selected papers will be published in Acta, a journal of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Submission Deadline: Please submit abstracts by December 15, 2008.

Karen-edis Barzman
Associate Professor, Art History
Director, CEMERS
(Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
LN-1129
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
USA
Phone: (607) 777-2130
Fax: (607) 777-3110

Untitled: Speculations on the Expanded Field of Writing (October 24-25, 2008)

2008-10-19T00:17:00.003-07:00

REDCAT and CalArts present the fifth annual series of experimental writing conferences at REDCAT, Untitled: Speculations on the Expanded Field of Writing is a two-day conversation about writing which, in some manner, exceeds the printed page. While familiar with visual artworks constituted as a set of instructions, secrets written by visitors in a book, or one artist erasing of another artist's work, is discussed how to be equivalent in the literary world. The conference is October 24-25, 2008.

Untitled is a common name of contemporary art works and also refers to the incipient moment of a new text or idea. It was chosen to convey a sense of openness and process. A variety of writers and artists will discuss the use of language and words and/or their object status, the book and the letter, the question of the "emptiness" vs. the fullness of language as a poetic medium, the pictorial versus the narrative, the incorporation of extra-linguistic symbols and signs (maps, diagrams, formulas, etc.), the question of conceptual writing and words off the page -- performed, cited, projected, incanted or invoked.

(...)

The conference will include two panels on the topic of Litterality, and examine how writers use what we normally consider non-linguistic elements, such as symbols, diagrams, maps, or scores placed in the context of writing. Also explored are invented writing systems, and what it might mean to think about the book as an object rather than as a collection of words or sentences.

As in the art world, many kinds of appropriation have been undertaken by experimental writers in the last several years. The panel on Appropriation and Citation will look at these practices, asking questions about whose work and what material gets appropriated, cited or resurrected, who owns texts, and if there is a difference between appropriation and citation.

A panel on The Meaninglessness or -fulness of Language will examine language as a vehicle of meaning. Rather than look at what texts say, it asks if language simply taken on its own is empty, saturated with meaning, both, or something else.

The fifth panel on The Concept of Conceptual Writing, looks at the use of writing not to convey meaning or tell stories but to convey concepts, asking how this might be similar, or not, to the work of conceptual artists in the visual arena.

In addition to the five panels, there will be two evening readings. The participants in the conference are Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Latasha Diggs, Johanna Drucker, Kenneth Goldsmith, Robert Grenier, Douglas Kearney, Steve McCaffery, Julie Patton, Salvador Plascencia, Jessica Smith, Brian Kim Stefans, Stephanie Taylor, Shanxing Wang and Heriberto Yepez. This event is organized by Matias Viegener and Christine Wertheim of the Writing Program at CalArts, and funded by The Annenberg Foundation.

Presentación de "Los materiales" de Hugo García Manríquez (Tierra Adentro 2008)

2008-10-17T14:57:00.003-07:00

1- DF, 22 de octubre, 19:00 hrs:

Presenta: Luis Felipe Fabre y Ernesto Lumbreras

Modera: José Luis Bobadilla

Lugar: Museo Mural Diego Rivera

Colón #7 esq. Balderas, Centro Histórico

México, Distrito Federal

2- PUEBLA, 23 de octubre, 18:00 hrs:

Presentan: Julio Eutiquio Sarabia y Alejandro Palma Castro

Modera: Roberto Martínez Garcilazo

Lugar: Sala José Luis Rodríquez de Alconedo, Casa de la Cutura

5 oriente, núm. 5, Col. Centro

Puebla, Puebla.

3- EDO. DE MÉXICO, 24 de octubre 18:00 hrs:

Presentan: Santiago Matías y el autor

Lugar: Cecytem, Ixtapan de la Sal, Estado de México

Bellas Artes s/n, Col. Barrio San Gaspar

Escuela Normal de Ixtapan

Centenario de la Educación s/n, Col. Ixtapita

Blonde Redhead - In Particular

2008-10-16T01:04:00.002-07:00

...X...X...X...

2008-10-11T21:50:00.008-07:00

la última nota que me escribo en el pizarrón de la cocina:

ahora la tristeza gana el aire. el cuerpo se acostumbra a respirarla. el dolor va limando las pulsiones del espíritu. no hay razón para amarse. no se está bien con uno mismo y con el otro se ensaya la sonrisa. se fija la mirada en una nube. se adereza el hambre con la sed.

la borro. adiós, te vamos a extrañar, me digo sin cabeza. el pizarrón me refleja agradecido.

Fórnix 8 /9: poesía mexicana y argentina

2008-10-11T00:01:00.009-07:00

Ana Franco Ortuño me informa que ya salió el número 8-9 de la revista peruana Fórnix, donde aparecen algunos poemas míos. Este número consta de dos partes; la primera está dedicada a la poesía mexicana, mientras que en la segunda parte predomina la poesía argentina. La revista es dirigida por Renato Sandoval, autor de los poemarios Singladuras, Pértigas, Luces de Talud, El revés y la fuga y Suzuki Blues. Tanto a Ana como a Renato los conocí el año pasado en Ciudad Juárez, durante el encuentro de escritores de Tierra Adentro.

Al googlear la nota, me entero de que, debido a que este volumen excede por 200 páginas la extensión regular de la revista, Renato convocó a una preventa aquí y aquí y aquí y aquí, a fin de poder cubrir los costos de edición. Súmate a la causa. Para adquirir este número gigante de Fórnix contacta a Renato en: ncuervos arroba yahoo punto com.

Índice de Fórnix 8/9

PARTE 1. Literatura mexicana actual: entre el Norte y el Sur

-Marco Antonio Campos - Hablan las máscaras: poesía mexicana 1929-1958 (ensayo).

-José Ángel Leyva - Lo florido y lo espinudo en la actual poesía mexicana (ensayo).

-Poesía mexicana del siglo XX: primer hemisiglo (selección de José Ángel Leyva): Alí Chumacero, Rubén Bonifaz, Nuño, Eduardo Lizalde, Tomás Segovia, Juan Bañuelos, Marco Antonio Montes de Oca, Gerardo Deniz, Francisco Cervantes, Hugo Gutiérrez Vega, Jaime Labastida, José Emilio Pacheco, Elsa Cross, Gloria Gervitz, Francisco Hernández, José Vicente Anaya, Antonio Deltoro, Carlos Montemayor, David Huerta y Marco Antonio Campos.

-Una generación en llamas: poetas mexicanos nacidos en los cincuentas (nota y selección de Eduardo Langagne): Raúl Bañuelos, Efraín Bartolomé. Alberto Blanco, Coral Bracho, Víctor Manuel Cárdenas, Héctor Carreto, Eduardo Casar, Ricardo Castillo, Luis Cortés Bargalló, Margarito Cuéllar, Juan Domingo Argüélles, Jorge Esquinca, José Ángel Leyva, Eduardo Milán, Fabio Morábito, Blanca Luz Pulido, Vicente Quitarte, José Luis Rivas, Bernardo Ruiz, Rafael Vargas, Minerva Margarita Villarreal, José Javier Villarreal y Verónica Volkow.

-La juventud (mexicana) en la otra ribera: más allá del 68 (nota y selección de Ana Franco Ortuño): Leopoldo Laurido Reyes, Natalia González Gottdiener, Inti García Santamarina, Óscar de Pablo, Luis Paniagua, Román Luján, Álvaro Solís, Heriberto Yépez, Rocío Cerón y Ángel Ortuño.

-Luis Arturo Ramos - Alaska, oh tierra del sol (de medianoche) (crónica de viaje).

-Claudia María González - Emilio Carballido: experimentalidad y parodia en Yo también hablo de la rosa (ensayo).

-Juan Carlos Bautista - Poemas.

-Juan José Rodríguez - Acepto, solo sé decir que te amo (cuento).

-Angélica García Santa Olaya – Poemas.

-Magali Velasco Vargas – De Xalapa a Estridentópolis (nota).

-Élmer Mendoza – El nombre de los personajes (nota).

-Martha Canfield – Carmen Boullosa: las mujeres de hoy entre el amor y la furia (ensayo).

-Mayra Luna – El desierto muro. Escritura y muerte en la frontera (ensayo).

-Norma Lazo – Ausencia y ascesis: lo real en la literatura (ensayo).

-Roberto Forns – Cristina Rivera Garza: poesía e invisibilidad (ensayo).

-José Vicente Anaya – El retardado surrealismo de Octavio Paz. Piedra fundacional del manierismo de ahora en la poesía mexicana (ensayo).

-César Silva Márquez – Poemas.

PARTE 2. Puro Sur

-Heinrich Heine – Introducción al Quijote (traducción del alemán y notas de Raquel García Borsani).

-Rodolfo Alonso – Poemas.

-Leonardo Aguirre – Sergeant Blogger (cuento).

-Cinco en Baires: Redondo, Rocha, Del Valle, Curiá y Montenegro (poesía).

-Paul Guillén – Ningún limbo bajo el sol (poema).

-Dos poetas de contraguardia: Gil Fúster y Fanelli.

-Claudie Lenzi – Cuerpo Tango (poema) (traducción del francés de Regina Caillat-Grenier).

-Muestra de poesía argentina actual (segunda parte) (selección de Leonardo Martínez y Carlos Juárez Aldazábal): Raúl Aráoz Anzoátegui, Máximo Simpson, Antonio Requeni, Héctor Miguel Angeli, Jorge Ariel Madrazo, Ivonne Bordelois, Juan García Gayo, Hebe Solves, Teresa Leonardi, Alberto Szpunberg, María Cristina Santiago, Raúl Orlando Artola, César Bisso, Susana Szwarc, Ana Guillot, Laura Yasán, Jorge Spíndola, Claudia Masin y Rodrigo Galarza.
-Otros autores.

Lectura en la Feria del Libro de Aguascalientes (FONCA)

2008-09-24T22:44:00.003-07:00

Viernes 26 de septiembre, 20:00 horas

Eduardo Saravia

Román Luján

Orfa Alarcón

Andrea Álvarez

Marcelo Tobar

Y

2008-09-24T21:14:00.007-07:00

un poema-resortera en el número 4 de la revista Metrópolis

I Met The Walrus - Josh Raskin

2008-09-21T10:32:00.002-07:00

Jerry Levitan interviews John Lennon (Toronto, 1969)

Portishead - We Carry On

2008-09-21T01:29:00.007-07:00

also the film Portishead in Portishead and the animated video The Rip are highly recommended

Weird things you can do in Los Angeles

2008-09-17T12:23:00.003-07:00

The Mind Diddlers

A Lecture with Jason Brown
Friday September 19th
8pm

Machine Project

Short description:

Alien sex! with Jason Brown! Talking about alien sex!

Longer description:

Genetic algorithms of Jeff Bridges, the sexy origins of modern rocketry and Scientology, mythology of aliens abducting your wife and the perversion at the heart of information technology. Free!

2008-09-14T13:13:00.001-07:00

Interesante entrevista de Karina Falcón a Luis Alberto Arellano y Julián Herbert en el Periódico de Poesía.

2008-09-11T22:18:00.001-07:00

Un poema mío en el blog de (muchísimas gracias) Alba

2008-09-08T21:12:00.002-07:00

Pues esto no será noticia para algunos, pero me acabo de dar cuenta de que el blog de Plan B está bastante actualizado, gracias a la enjundia y entusiasmo de la Lola. Échenle un ojo.

Mandorla 11 is out!

2008-09-05T13:08:00.004-07:00

Nuevos poemas míos (y de mis compas Juan Carlos Galeano y Heriberto Yépez, among others) en el número 11 de la revista Mandorla. Lléguenle.

THE 2009 SUSAN SONTAG PRIZE FOR TRANSLATION

2008-09-05T12:36:00.006-07:00

$5,000 grant for a literary translation from Spanish into English:

PLEASE POST & DISTRIBUTE

This $5,000 grant will be awarded to a proposed work of literary translation from Spanish into English and is open to anyone under the age of 30. The translation must fall under the category of fiction or letters, and the applicant will propose his or her own translation project. The project should be manageable for a five-month period of work, as the grant will be awarded in May 2009, and the translation must be completed by October 2009.

Acceptable proposals include a novella, a play, a collection of short stories or poems, or a collection of letters that have literary import.Preference will be given to works that have not been previously translated. (Previously translated works will be considered, however applicants should include an explanation for why they are proposing a new translation.) Applicants wishing to translate significantly longer works should contact the Foundation before sending in their applications so that supplementary materials can be included. The prizewinner will be notified on May 15, 2009 and results will be announced online at www.susansontag.org.

The recipient will be expected to participate in symposia on literary translation with established writers and translators, as well as public readings of their work once the translation has been completed.

Application Requirements (Please download the official application online at www.susansontag.org.) All applications must include the following:

*Application Cover Sheet (available online at www.susansontag.org)

*Personal Statement (2 pages maximum) explaining your interest and background in literature and the Spanish language

*Project proposal (2 pages maximum) outlining the work and describing its importance

*5 page sample translation of the proposed work from Spanish into English

*The same passage in Spanish

*A bio-bibliography of the author (including information on previous translations of his or her work into English)

*One academic letter of recommendation

*Official transcript from your current or most recent academic institution

All applications must be submitted via regular mail to the Foundation’s P.O. Box address, which will be posted online at www.susansontag.org on December 15, 2008. All application materials must be received by January 30, 2009.

The fine print: Applicants must be under the age of 30 on the date the prizewinner will be announced: May 15, 2009. Proposals from applicants who will be 30 years of age or older on May 15, 2009 unfortunately cannot be considered. By submitting work to the Susan Sontag Foundation, the applicant acknowledges the right of the Foundation to use the accepted work in its publications, on its website, and for educational and promotional purposes related to the Foundation. Please note that application materials cannot be returned to applicants.