100 Refutations | Ecuador | Poetry | Spanish
June, 2018Andrea Crespo Granda is an Ecuadoran writer, educator, and activist. She has published several award-winning collections of poetry including L.A. Monstruo (2013); Registro de la habitada (2016); and Libro Hémbrico (2017). Her work has also appeared in numerous anthologies of contemporary Ecuadoran poetry. She has served as Literary and Narrative Arts Director for the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, and currently works as a professor at the University of the Arts.
100 Refutations | Mexico | Poetry (excerpt) | Spanish
June, 2018Gabriel Cantú Westendarp has published five collections of poetry, including Naturaleza muerta (2011); Poemas del árbol (2009); El filo de la playa (2007); El efecto (2006); and Material peligroso (2015), in which these poems appear. She has also published a novel called Hamburgo en alguna parte (2016). She won the Ramón López Velarde National Poetry Prize in 2012 for Material peligroso (2015). She also co-founded the magazine Otra Orilla and works at the Metropolitan University of Monterrey.
100 Refutations | Nicaragua | Poetry | Spanish
June, 2018José Solón Argüello Escobar (1879-1913) was born in León, Nicaragua. During his life he worked as a teacher, poet, and Mexican politician. In Nicaragua, he founded both a private school and a journal, El Heraldo. He was politically active in Mexico his entire life while continuing to publish numerous works of poetry. In 1913, the year his book Cruel Things was published, he actively campaigned for his friend Francisco I. Madero to end what he called “a tyranny in Mexico” and to “restore democracy.” After the assassination of Madero, Argüello fled to New York, but after a short while—disguised as a railroad worker—he snuck back into Mexico with the intention to “execute by his own hands the usurper Victoriano Huerta” (Poetas Modernistas de Nicaragua, 170). He was discovered in August 1913 and executed by firing squad just a few weeks later.
100 Refutations | Poetry (excerpt) | Spanish
June, 2018The Popol Vuh is a collection of mythic, legendary, and historical narratives from the K’iche Maya people, whose current descendants live primarily in Guatemala and the Mexican southwest. It is often referred to as both a historical account and sacred book. It has no single author and may be one of the most important documents to survive colonial cultural eradication efforts. Current copies of the Popol Vuh are taken from the transcription made by Fray Francisco Ximénez and, it has been theorized, an unknown native man who learned the Latin alphabet and then transcribed it from the recitation of an old Maya man.
100 Refutations | Colombia | Poetry | Spanish
June, 2018Manuel Saturio Valencia Mena (1867-1907) was a teacher, a poet, a popular leader from the Chocó region, and the very last man officially sentenced to death in Colombia. As a child, he participated in the parochial choir and learned both French and Latin under the tutelage of the Capuchin priests. He was an exceptional student and the first black man accepted to Cauca University’s law program. He earned the rank of captain while fighting in La Guerra De Los Mil Dias. He was a lifelong autodidact and served in many important positions in the region. In 1907, he was framed for arson—for likely political reasons—and, after a six-day trial, he was executed by firing squad.
100 Refutations | Essay | Poetry
June, 2018Welcome to the eleventh week of 100 Refutations. For one hundred days, we’re publishing a daily poem from one of the countries recently denigrated by the president of the United States. Lina M. Ferreira C.-V., who conceived and compiled the series and translated many of its poems, has been working tirelessly on this enormous project, with the help of several collaborators, since the president’s comments in January. We’re accompanying the daily poems with a weekly essay by Lina, and the eleventh one is featured here.
– InTranslation editors
100 Refutations | Poetry | Spanish
June, 2018This poem is believed to be a festive poem for children with religious connotations. It was originally collected by Phillip and Mary Baer from the Lacandon people of the Pelhá region.
100 Refutations | Poetry | Spanish | Venezuela
June, 2018María Teresa Ogliastri was born in Los Teques, Venezuela, and lives in Caracas. She is the author of five collections of poetry: Del diario de la señora Mao (From the Diary of Madame Mao, 2011); Polo Sur (South Pole, 2008); Brotes de Alfalfa (Alfalfa Sprouts, 2007); Nosotros los inmortales (We, the Immortals, 1997); and Cola de Plata (Silver Tail, 1994). She has been featured at poetry festivals throughout Latin America, and her poems appear in several anthologies of contemporary Venezuelan poetry. She is a professor of philosophy at the Central University of Venezuela.
100 Refutations | Mexico | Poetry | Spanish
June, 2018Briceida Cuevas Cob was born in Tepakán, Campeche, Mexico. From 1992 to 1994, she was part of the Maya poetry workshop in the Casa de Cultura de Caliní run by Walderman Noh Tzec. Her work has been widely published and anthologized. She has also been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships, and in 2010 she became Artistic Creator in the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte.
100 Refutations | Chile | Poetry (excerpts) | Spanish
June, 2018Sor Tadea de San Joaquín (1750-1827) was a Catholic nun and writer during the Chilean colonial period. She is regarded as the first woman poet of Chile.
The Brooklyn Rail welcomes you to our web-exclusive section InTranslation, where we feature unpublished translations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and dramatic writing. Published since April 2007, InTranslation is a venue for outstanding work in translation and a resource for translators, authors, editors, and publishers seeking to collaborate.
We seek exceptional unpublished English translations from all languages.
Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry: Manuscripts of no longer than 20 pages (double-spaced).
Plays: Manuscripts of no longer than 30 pages (in left-justified format).