ISBN: HB: 9780300241242

Yale University Press

July 2021

256 pp.

19,7x12,7 cm

HB:
£27.50
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New World Written

Selected Poems

The poetry of Maria Baranda is a haunting homage to the natural world: transcendent in scope, attentive to the particular, and acutely aware of the mystery of being. Absorbed by nature's otherness, Baranda seeks to inhabit the voices of the wind, of wings, night, day, and perhaps most keenly, water. These lyrical verses turn repeatedly to the longings and griefs of embodiment: "What is that God / To be praised with all our sadness / If not love / Or at least the wonder / Of being a body full of blood", Baranda asks.

Drawing on epics such as the "Aeneid" and "Beowulf", the mystical verses of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, and writers who engage the landscape of shore and sea from Daniel Defoe to Dylan Thomas, this sweeping collection brings together the finest poems of one of today's most powerful and innovative Mexican writers.

About the author

Award-winning poet Maria Baranda is a major figure in contemporary Latin American literature. She lives in Mexico City.

Paul Hoover is professor of creative writing at San Francisco State University. He lives in Mill Valley, CA.