Subscribe to the 2018 season now!
Puerto Rico en mi corazón
Puerto Rico en Mi Corazón is one of the most comprehensive collections of contemporary Puerto Rican poets in both English and Spanish. Edited by Raquel Salas-Rivera, Erica Mena, Ricardo Maldonado, and Carina del Valle Schorske, the collection includes poems by Yara Liceaga, Raquel Albarrán, Nicole Sealey, Gaddiel Francisco Ruis Rivera, Nicole Delgado, Martín Espada, Mara Pastor, Gegman Lee Ríos, Kenyatta JP García, Lara Mimosa Montes, Urayoán Noel, Jennifer McCauley, Vincent Toro, Cindy Jimenez Vera, Luis Othoniel, Abdiel Echevarria, Nemir Cintrón, Joey de Jesus, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, and others. A selection can be read in ANMLY26.
The book grows from a project in which more than 15 book artists around the country are printing handmade letterpress broadsides to raise funds for Hurricane María relief. 100% of sales go directly to Taller Salud, a San Juan based non-profit providing health services to low income communities of color, women, and LGBTQ Puerto Ricans. The broadsides will be available at a fundraiser reading co-sponsored by CantoMundo and #poetsforPuertoRico on March 2, 2018, 6–8PM at Caribbean Cultural Center, 120 East 125th St. NYC
The book is available for pre-orders on the Anomalous Press Etsy shop, as is the broadside set in three limited editions: a signed boxed edition of 5, an unsigned boxed edition of 5, and an unboxed edition of 40.
Additionally, we will be selling some broadsides individually, and are releasing a PDF in addition to the print anthology to encourage people to donate at whatever level they can. The estimated release date of the anthology is September, 2018.
Elegía / Elegy by Raquel Salas-Rivera
“what is the difference between cuir and queer? the difference is the difference between knowing and not knowing IVÁN. the difference is in how we touch, where we touch, and how much is seen. the difference lies in the internalized imperative to code my language, how closeted i feel or how unfreed by the imperialism of u.s. freedom. the difference is the water between san juan y orlando. the difference is crossing over because of a debt imposed by predatory investors, only to be met with the hatred of a country that never sees us except as an electoral statistic or a token latinx. the difference makes little holies in every poem. the difference lies is in wanting to hold each other’s differences like the held space of rodin’s cathedral. huequitos i curl up inside. holies i want to suck and shiver.
i have translated these poems. i have not translated these poems. when you see me, you never see me. if i’m angry, i’m not asking for your understanding. i want you to experience discomfort, the acuteness of not having the solidity from which to say “i vote. i am a citizen. i am america.”
Elegía/Elegy is baptized by queer loss and losing. Each section deifies lost cuir/queer loves, closing the distance between deity (queer icon) and fam. The book delves into the (im)possibility of building between lo cuir boricua and the queerness of being boricua in the diaspora. It invites the reader to “learn to tell the difference between our love and theirs,” and to see, in this difference, a way forward.
Raquel Salas Rivera is the 2018–19 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia. Their work has appeared in journals such as the Revista del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Apogee, BOAAT, Círculo de Poesía, Cosmonauts Ave, Waxwing, Dreginald, and the Boston Review. They are the author of Caneca de anhelos turbios (Editora Educación Emergente), oropel/tinsel (Lark Books), and tierra intermitente (Ediciones Alayubia). Their book lo terciario/the tertiary is forthcoming in 2018 from Timeless, Infinite Light. Currently, they are Co-Editor of The Wanderer, and Co-Editor of Puerto Rico en mi corazón, a collection of bilingual broadsides of contemporary Puerto Rican poets. If for Roque Dalton there is no revolution without poetry, for Raquel, there is no poetry without Puerto Rico.
Season/Dogma/Ghost by Ryo Yamaguchi
Season/Dogma/Ghost is a long poem of waiting, in the bureaucratic, for return. It is of the body and its antinomies. It is made of spells and memoranda. It administrates and follows, spins within its own interiors while yet setting out for great distances. It is the thoughtless place where boredom and adventure are one. Over days of weeks, from offices and street corners, pitching waters and muted parks, this poem evacuates the contemporary. It is automatic. It is forever adjacent to the beloved.
Ryo Yamaguchi is the author of The Refusal of Suitors, published by Noemi Press. His poetry has appeared in journals such as Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, and Bennington Review, and his book reviews and other critical writings can be found in outlets such as Boston Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Newpages. He lives in Seattle where he works at Wave Books. Please visit him at plotsandoaths.com.
AND COMING THIS FALL…
rojo si pudiera ser rojo // red if it could be red by Ana Belén translated by Ryan Greene
The dream
When there wasn’t light,
nor water, nor shadows because there wasn’t light
nor water, nor sun because there wasn’t moon
nor seas because there wasn’t water
nor light, nor trees because there weren’t
birds, nor sky because there wasn’t earth
nor light, because there wasn’t fire,
nor heat, because there wasn’t light
nor water, nor earth nor fire.
There was a dream
asleep
awaiting the blue of the sky.
El sueño
Cuando no había luz,
ni agua, ni sombras porque no había luz
ni agua, ni sol porque no había luna
ni mares porque no había agua
ni luz, ni árboles porque no había
pájaros, ni cielo porque no había tierra
ni luz, porque no había fuego
ni calor, porque no había luz,
ni agua, ni tierra ni fuego.
Había un sueño
dormido
esperando el azul del cielo.
Ana Belén López writes poems that are concise beyond measure. Supersaturated. Distilled. She brings her readers into contact with the connective tissues of experience — the space between moments, the silence between sounds. rojo si pudiera ser rojo // red if it could be red brings together work from the two extremities of her poetic project. This bilingual collection includes poems from her first book, Alejándose avanza // Drifting off Drives on, and a series of her most recent, unpublished poems, Ni visible ni palpable // Not visible Not touchable. This juxtaposition traces the temporal arc of her poetry while highlighting her steadfast commitment to the exploration of certain themes central to her work — the extraordinary in the ordinary, the magic of memory (both voluntary and involuntary), and what it means to exist “in between.”
Ana Belén López is the author of four books of poetry — Alejándose avanza (Drifting off Drives on), Del barandal (From the railing), Silencios (Silences), and Retrato hablado (Spoken portrait). Her poetry has been translated into several languages and has been published in a wide array of national media including the journals Pauta, Letras Libres, and Revista de la Universidad among others. A professor of literature, she has taught 20th century Latin American Narrative and Poetry for more than 20 years.
Ryan Greene is a translator, poet, and sometimes bookmaker from Phoenix, Arizona. He recently graduated from Brown University where he studied Literary Arts and Health & Human Biology. Once, when he was far from home, his mother sent him a sprig of creosote so he could remember the smell of rain.
Geet Chaturvedi translated by Anita Gopalan
THE MEMORY OF NOW
(For Eduardo Chirinos)
Downstairs I left a candle burning
In its light I’ll read a few lines when I return
By the time I returned the candle had burned out
Those few lines had faded like innocence
You walk with me
The way moon walks along with a child sitting in a train window
I stood in the balcony one day
Waved a handkerchief toward the sky
Those who have gone without saying their goodbyes
Will recognize it even from far
In my handkerchief they have left behind their tears
The way early humans left behind their etchings on cave walls
Lyotard said, every sentence is a now
No. Actually it’s a memory of now
Every memory is a poem
In our books, the count of the unwritten poems is so much more.
Geet Chaturvedi (b. 1977) is a noted Hindi poet and novelist. He has authored six books, including two highly acclaimed novellas, and two collections of poetry. His poems have been translated into fourteen languages including Spanish, German, Russian, Croatian, Turkish and Nepali. He was awarded Bharat Bhushan Agrawal Award for poetry (2007), Krishna Pratap Award for fiction (2014), and named one of ‘Ten Best Writers’ of India by English Daily Indian Express (2011). He is on the advisory board of several literary organizations. He has translated into Hindi the poems of Pablo Neruda, Lorca, Adonis, Czeslaw Milosz, Adam Zagajewski, Bei Dao, Dunya Mikhail, Iman Mersal and Eduardo Chirinos. After spending 16 years in journalism, Geet spends much of his time now writing and working on his eagerly awaited novel Ranikhet Xpress. He lives in Bhopal, India.
Anita Gopalan is a 2016 PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant recipient for her translation of Simsim by Geet Chaturvedi. She graduated in Computer Science and Mathematics from BITS Pilani, and worked in banking technology sector in India, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Middle East. She has translated prose and poetry by Geet Chaturvedi. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming in World Literature Today, Poetry International Rotterdam, Modern Poetry in Translation, Indian Literature and elsewhere. A translator, artist, and trader, Anita now lives in Bangalore, India.
Subscribe to the 2018 season now!
Anomalous Press 2018 Titles was originally published in Anomaly on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.