Category Archives: News

Rozewicz Comes to America, II

Herewith our second of two samplings of the work of Tadeusz Różewicz, the last in his mighty generation of Polish poets to be fully heard in America.  These three little poems find our poet in a characteristically laconic mode. The translator is Joanna Trzeciak. Click here for our first sample, a fantasia on who might […]

Also posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Rozewicz Comes to America, I

Tadeusz Różewicz is the last of the great run of Polish poets that picked up where Polish independence left off to become fully audible in English.  Norton publishes at the end of this month an ample survey of his career, Sobbing Superpower: Selected Poems of Tadeusz Różewicz, translated by Joanna Trzeciak.  Little Star brings you […]

Tagged , | Comments Off on Rozewicz Comes to America, I

Three soldiers leave camp on a mission, from “To Hell With Cronjé,” by Ingrid Winterbach

(Cape Colony, South Africa, 1902) It is a clear day, with few clouds. They have not been on horseback for a long time. The cool morning air is pleasant on Reitz’s cheeks. He is grateful for a chance to get out of camp at last, even for a day or two. The plan is to […]

Tagged , | Comments Off on Three soldiers leave camp on a mission, from “To Hell With Cronjé,” by Ingrid Winterbach

Conversations at the End of the Avant Garde

In 1928, a group of artists, poets, and provocateurs in Leningrad founds “Oberiu,” a nonsensical-sounding acronym for “The Association of Real Art.” Says patron Kazimir Malevich: “You are young troublemakers and I am an old one. Let’s see what we can do.” They shock and mesmerize the city with their outlandish performances and stunts. By […]

Tagged , | 2 Comments

Gary Snyder in New York

This autumn Counterpoint Press, heir of the beat- and Japanese-inflected North Point Press of Berkeley, founded by Jack Shoemaker in 1980, brings back Gary Snyder’s Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems in a lovely reissue, as well as a twentieth anniversary edition of Snyder’s summative The Practice of the Wild, with a new introduction by the […]

Tagged , | Comments Off on Gary Snyder in New York

“The Grand Lady of My Soul,” by Goli Taraghi

In front of me, in the middle of the desert, in that silent wasteland, there is a secluded garden sheltered by white walls. A half-open door summons me. I peek in. There is no sign of a human being. There are two rows of tall poplars flanking the surrounding walls and four aged cypress trees […]

Tagged , , | Comments Off on “The Grand Lady of My Soul,” by Goli Taraghi

Words Without Borders, an appreciation

Words Without Borders is a grandly ambitious project bringing international writing to American audiences. They publish an online monthly journal homing in on a language or culture or theme somewhere in the world, as well as expansive anthologies and curricula

Tagged , | 2 Comments

Looking for More? Other new writing from the Muslim world

In addition to Tablet & Pen, featured in Little Star this week, there are suddenly lots of opportunities to sample writing old and new from the Muslim world in English, such as Beirut 39: New Writing From The Arab World, edited by Samuel Shimon for the Hay Festival in Wales, with an introduction by a […]

Tagged , | 1 Comment

“An Interview with Atropos,” by Wislawa Szymborska

This fall’s bonanza of Polish literature continues with new translations of the Vermeer of modern poetry, Wislawa Szymborska. Szymborska was born in 1923 in Prowent, Poland. Five collections of her poems have been published in English. She received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996. This poem is translated by Clare Cavanagh and the great […]

Tagged , | 2 Comments

“Break the Glass,” by Jean Valentine

Little Star welcomes the appearance of Break the Glass, an enigmatic and limpid new book from Jean Valentine. Some of our favorite poems from Break the Glass are available on line: “In Prison” and “Hawkins Stable” in The New Yorker “The Whitewashed Walls” at Copper Canyon Press “Time is Matter Here” on Poetry Daily One […]

Tagged , | Comments Off on “Break the Glass,” by Jean Valentine