Diadem: Selected Poems

"Her style is very particular; one can recognize it by reading a single line. It doesn't resemble anyone else's," insists Cesar Aira when describing Marosa di Giorgio's poetry in the Diccionario de autores latinoamericanos. Di Giorgio has one of the most distinct and recognizable voices in Latin American poetry. Her surreal and fablelike prose fragments invite comparison to Kafka, Cortazar, or even contemporary American poets Russell Edson and Charles Simic, but di Giorgio's voice, imagery, and themes-childhood, the Uruguayan countryside, a perception of the sacred-are her own. Di Giorgio's reputation has grown in recent years. Her collected poems and collected prose were published in 2008, and, in addition to Aira, other South American critics and authors have bestowed attention and praise on her writing. One of her books of erotic prose, Misales (1993), has been translated into French. In addition, her work was featured in two recent anthologies of contemporary Uruguayan poetry translated into English, and her fourth book, The History of Violets, translated by Jeannine Marie Pitas, was published in 2010 by Ugly Ducking Presse. Diadem, a careful selection of poems that span the enormous output of her career, will introduce English-language readers to this vibrant and original voice.