Sor Juana and Other Monsters

Luis Felipe Fabre

Translated by JD Pluecker

POETRY, TRANSLATION  |  $10

December 2015
Read an excerpt

Sor Juana scholars publish articles, essays, papers, rebuttal letters
in specialized magazines, on personal blogs, in the proceedings
from conferences that they themselves organize in order to differ with what other Sor Juana scholars say.

Sor Juana scholars are very busy people.
Sor Juana scholars are very strange people.
Sor Juana scholars tend to have their own separate cubicles.

But even among Sor Juana scholars,
whose essential task is to differ with other Sor Juana scholars,

there are some points of convergence:
almost none:
one:

all Sor Juana scholars concur that Sor Juana was a monster.

uncomfortable subjects, urgent protests and darkly comic desires

Sopitas.com

In seventeenth century, colonial-era Mexico, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s visionary and passionate verse assured her a seminal place in the literary canon. Luis Felipe Fabre has reimagined this mysterious figure, so often appropriated and dissected by academics and literati. Fabre’s poems are built out of sixteenth century octosyllabic tetrameter and pulp novels, out of horror movie trailers and pompous academic papers, out of Medusas and dreams, Bat Sisters and rhymes. But more than that, they are made of language, a language brimming with irony, black humor and dread as he reflects on the many transformations of Sor Juana and of Mexico itself.

About the Author

Luis Felipe Fabre (Mexico City, 1974) is a poet and critic. He has published a volume of essays, Leyendo agujeros, the poetry collections Cabaret Provenza, La sodomía en la Nueva España, Poemas de terror y de misterio, and the book Escribir con caca (Sexto Piso). He is the editor of two anthologies of contemporary Mexican poetry, Divino Tesoro and La Edad de Oro, and Arte & Basura, an anthology of Mario Santiago Papasquiaro’s poetry. He has been curator of the Poesía en Voz Alta Festival and Todos los originales serán destruídos, an exhibition of contemporary art made by poets. His chapbook Sor Juana and Other Monsters was published in a bilingual edition as part of the UDP Señal Series.

Praise

Fabre uses brutal irony—an irony that operates through reiteration and self-criticism—to reflect on the transformation of Sor Juana into academic and literary merchandise. [Fabre medita con sorna brutal—una sorna que funciona por reiteración y es autocrítica—sobre la transformación de Sor Juana en mercancía académica y literaria.]

Álvaro Enrigue

Luis Felipe Fabre knows the power of fantastic literature, its ability to invoke ghosts of uncomfortable subjects, urgent protests and darkly comic desires. Do you like horror movies? Well, this book of poems should definitely be on your bookshelf. [Luis Felipe Fabre conoce el poder del arte fantástico, su licencia para invocar fantasmas de temas incómodos, denuncias apremiantes y cómicos oscuros deseos. ¿Les gusta el cine de terror? Bueno, este poemario debe estar en su librero ya.]

Sopitas.com

... make[s] the case that literature is a conversation that never ends and that can be added to across languages, classes, genders, places and times. They remind us why the convention in writing about works of literature is to refer to those works in the present tense [...] because such writing unfolds in an eternal present, remaining relevant, ongoing, and interactive every time a reader chooses to read it.

Kathleen Rooney, Chicago Tribune

As a conduit for future translations of this caliber, Señal is a sign of hope for English readers, though Fabre’s poems likely approach the pinnacle of such an endeavor.

Matt Bucher, molossus

About the Translator

JD Pluecker is a language worker who writes, translates, organizes, interprets, and creates. In 2010, he co-founded the transdisciplinary collaborative Antena and in 2015 the local social justice interpreting collective Antena Houston. His work is informed by experimental poetics, language justice, queer aesthetics, and cross-border/cross-language cultural production. He has translated numerous works from Spanish, including Sor Juana and Other Monsters (Ugly Duckling Presse), Gore Capitalism (Semiotext(e)), and Antígona González (Les Figues Press). His book of poetry and image, Ford Over, was released in 2016 from Noemi Press. He is a member of the Macondo Writing Workshop and has exhibited work at Blaffer Art Museum, the Hammer Museum, Project Row Houses, and more.

In the News

Publication Details

ISBN: 978-1-937027-76-6
Chapbook
staple-bound. 32 pp, 5.25 x 8.25 in
Publication Date: December 01 2015
Distribution: Asterism Books (US)
Series: Señal #1