Image of Absence. This item is unavailable.Image of Absence

Poetry. Latinx Studies. Women's Studies. Translated from the Spanish by Curtis Bauer. Winner of the International Latino Book Award. Lyrical, leaping, mysterious, rigorous, and deft, the poems of Mexican poet Jeannette L. Clariond defy easy analysis. Says Rebecca Gayle Howell, "In IMAGE OF ABSENCE, Jeannette L. Clariond-the laureate of Mexico's soul-takes H.D.'s hand and dives head first into the self-same sea which gave us Trilogy, that sea of treacherous silence wherein God's name lives. With the courage only a mystic dares, Clariond breathes this water into her lungs so she might utter body, its absence; history, her absence; love, her ever-was, speaking sound into silence until it all becomes air. Of course, only the intrepid Curtis Bauer would be the one ready to travel with Clariond into this deep. We needed this book revealed to English; in this time of overwhelming American fear, I needed my chance to share in this uncommon prayer." Translator Curtis Bauer faced (in his own words) "the seemingly impossible task of how to translate absence, as well as the many sensations absence imprints upon one's body and psyche," and succeed he did.

Jeannette L. Clariond (Chihuahua, Mexico, 1949) grew up between languages, which influenced how she looks at the world, her vision of reality and her poetics. A prolific poet and translator, she has won numerous awards and prizes for her poetry collections, including the Premio Nacional de Poesía Efraín Huerta for the collection Deserted Memory; the Premio Nacional de Poesía Gonzalo Rojas for Everything Before Nightfall; her book Woman Turning Her Back was a finalist for the Premio Nacional de Poesía Ramón López Velarde; and Image of Silence was a finalist for the Premio Cope in Peru. In addition to her poetry, Ms. Clariond has translated more than twenty books of poetry by American and European authors, including Charles Wright, Primo Levi, Elizabeth Bishop and Anne Carson. Over the last twenty five years she has translated ten books by the Italian poet Alda Merini. In 2002 Ms. Clariond received a Conaculta Rockefeller Foundation grant for her translation of Charles Wright's Black Zodiac, and from 2000 to 2006 she worked with the acclaimed critic, Harold Bloom, at Yale University. During this time, she translated important poetic works from the United States and co-edited and subsequently published the anthology, The School of Wallace Stevens: A Profile of Contemporary North American Poetry; the book was awarded the Latino Book Award's Best Translation Prize in 2013. Ms. Clariond is a collaborating member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, which has branches in Washington and New York. She is currently translating Anne Carson's book Nox into Spanish.