[Cambridge, MA]

Latin American Poetry Book Launch: Berenguer & Rodríguez
May 24, 2019, 7:00 pm
at Grolier Poetry Book Shop

Please join us at Grolier Book Shop for the launch of two books of Latin American poetry in English translation published by Ugly Duckling Presse:

MATERIA PRIMA by Amanda Berenguer and 
THE WINTER GARDEN PHOTOGRAPH by Reina María Rodríguez

MATERIA PRIMA is the first English-language collection of the poetry of AMANDA BERENGUER (1921 – 2010), widely regarded as one of Uruguay’s greatest poets. She was a key figure in the “Generation of 1945,” known around the world for its energetic experimentation. Her first book appeared in Montevideo in 1940, followed by a steady stream of collections recognized with awards including, among many others, the prestigious international Casa de las Américas Prize for Poetry (1986). Berenguer’s lifelong dedication to the arts included work with little presses and radio programming, as well as collaborations with dancers and musicians. MATERIA PRIMA, edited by Kristin Dykstra and Kent Johnson and published in a bilingual edition by Ugly Duckling Presse, is comprised of selections from eight of Berenguer’s books an includes a section of her visual poems, and includes an introduction by Roberto Echavarren and an interview conducted by Silvia Guerra. The translators are Gillian Brassil, Anna Deeny Morales, Mónica de la Torre, Kristin Dykstra, Kent Johnson, Urayoán Noel, Jeannine Marie Pitas, and Alex Verdolini.

REINA MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ (b. 1952) lives in Havana, Cuba, is the recipient of the Alejo Carpentier Medal for Achievement in Cuban literature, Cuba’s National Prize for Literature, the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Prize for Poetry, two Casa de las Américas prizes, and the Italo Calvino Prize, among other awards. A meditation on the power and limitations of images, The Winter Garden Photograph began as an homage to a magazine, The Courier, published by UNESCO. Reina María Rodríguez used the magazine’s photographs of faraway places to spark an investigation of the mental landscapes comprising her own, contemporary Havana. This bilingual edition, co-translated by Kristin Dykstra and Nancy Gates Madsen, includes an interview with Rodríguez, conducted by Rosa Alcalá.

READERS INCLUDE:

KRISTIN DYKSTRA is the translator of Cubanology, a book of days by Omar Pérez (Station Hill Press), and Other Letters to Milena, a mixed-genre book by Reina María Rodríguez published by University of Alabama Press, which has also published her translations of Cuban authors Juan Carlos Flores, Ángel Escobar, and Marcelo Morales. The recipient of an NEA Literary Translation Fellowship, Dykstra won the inaugural Gulf Coast Prize for Literary Translation. Kristin is the principal translator of Reina María Rodríguez’s The Winter Garden Photograph (UDP), and, with Kent Johnson, she is co-editor of Amanda Berenguer’s Materia Prima (UDP).

ANNA DEENY MORALES has translated several collections of Raúl Zurita’s poetry, including Purgatory (University of California Press, 2009), Dreams for Kurosawa (arrow as aarow press, 2012), and Sky Below (Northwestern University Press, 2016). Other translations include Floating Lanterns by Mercedes Roffé (Shearsman Press, 2015) as well as her translations of Alejandra Pizarnik, which were included in Pinholes in the Night (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). She has published translations of Gabriela Mistral, Idea Vilariño, Nicanor Parra, Marosa di Giorgio and Malú Urriola in journals such as The Paris Review, BOMB, and Harvard Review. Currently Deeny Morales is writing a book about the poetic structures of solitude and history in Latin America.

Writer EILYN LOMBARD CABRERA is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages at the University of Connecticut. Her poetry collections include Todas las diosas fatigadas (Ediciones La Luz, 2011) and Suelen ser frágiles las muchachas sobre el puente (Reina del Mar Editores, 2005). Two more are forthcoming: Las tierras rojas (Ediciones Mecenas, Cuba) and Bienvenido a Facebook (Letras Cubanas). Eilyn has published articles and reviews in both Cuba and the U.S., as well as working as an editor, and she will join us in presenting the UDP edition that features Reina María Rodríguez.