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“The Greatest Liar in the World” (Flash Fiction by Etgar Keret)
In the wake of President Bonespur’s stint as a Mussolini-esque weatherman, Keret (as translated by Jessica Cohen) offers an especially resonant reading experience. Here’s one exemplary excerpt: [H]is mouth is a bona fide cosmic phenomenon, a black hole that sucks in reality and spits it out the other end as something completely different.Read More
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News that Stays News from the 11th Century
The poems below are from Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon Ibn Gabirol, translated from the Hebrew by Raymond P. Scheindlin. A beautiful and challenging poet, Ibn Gabirol seems strikingly modern in his methods, at least as brought over into English by Scheindlin. For more information, see Mitchell Abidor‘s fine review of Vulture in a Cage here. Behold the rose: Her body’s like her garment. When you look at her, she blushes like a bride before her husband, or like a girl who runs out screaming, her hands upon her head in horror. * Bring me to the vineyard, friend.Read More
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Immensity’s Resonance
I’ve never, as I recall, posted while vacationing in México. It is typically an escape into extended quiet time with my lovely wife amid sea vistas, the soft rattle of palm leaves, a margarita or two, conversations with good friends in which I slaughter the Spanish language … and, of course, a stack of books to read. José Juan Tablada This time I’m also diverting myself by translating a small book of haiku-influenced poems by José Juan Tablada, called Un Día … poemas sintéticos (One Day … Synthetic Poems).Read More
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Adventures in Reading 2018
Old Reading Room at BookBar (Photo: Tricia M.) Let me admit up front that I’ve included half a dozen books here that were read as part of my work with the Professional Creative Writing program at University College. But they all turned out to be worthwhile reading experiences. Even those I couldn’t quite connect with—Juan Gelman’s The Poems of Sidney West, Ben Lerner’s Angle of Yaw, and Adonis’s powerful Concerto al-Quds, which is also recondite and nakedly anguished by turns—continue to haunt me. This is usually an early indicator of re-readings in the offing.Read More
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A Journey into the Steppe
Beautifully translated by Krishna Winston I recently finished a typically soulful, visionary novel by Peter Handke, On a Dark Night I Left My Silent House. It concerns the journey of a pharmacist from the Austrian town of Taxham, near Salzburg, who—isolated and estranged from his wife—sets out to cure himself of anxiety and dread by undertaking a long, strange journey into the Alps. There he acquires two traveling companions, and aging and all-but-forgotten poet and a once-famous Olympic skier, each on his own quest.Read More
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Eyes of the Cuervo / Ojos del Crow
Eyes of the Cuervo / Ojos del Crow is Joseph Hutchison’s 17th collection of poems. Title: Eyes of the Cuervo / Ojos del Crow ISBN: 9781610195034 Publication Date: May 1, 2018 Length: 72 pages Binding: Trade paper Eyes of the Cuervo/Ojos del Crow is a bilingual edition of poems written at one of two “boutique” posadas—Capitán Lafitte or its equally soulful successor, Petit Lafitte—both situated north of Playa del Carmen on the Caribbean coast of México. The poems have been translated into Spanish by Patricia Herminia and illustrated by Colorado artist Sabina Espinet.Read More
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Adios, Nicanor Parra
This is old news by now … that the great Nicanor Parra passed away on January 23rd. There have been obits and memoirs by journalists and translators, but the best reflection you’re likely to find is by the Chilean native, writer and translator, Soledad Marambio, which you can read here.Read More
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Chinese Fire
My good friend Joe Nigg, wrote an extraordinary 2016 book, The Phoenix: An Unnatural Biography of a Mythical Beast. It includes a chapter on “Poetic Fire,” which itself includes a poem of mine—rooted in the phoenix image—called “Revenant.” Now, between Joe’s inclusion of “Revenant” and the book’s appearance in print, I revised the poem, making several minor and a few substantial changes. In particular, the arc of the second version became … well, darker … and it was that second, darker version that subsequently appeared in my collection The World As Is: New & Selected Poems, 1972-2015.Read More
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My Year in Books (2017)
This year’s list is longer than usual, in part because I created two literature courses for the Professional Creative Writing program I direct at D.U.’s University College, a process that entailed lots of reading.Read More
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George Szirtes on Artistic Internationalism
“Culture is not a purely national business. I work as a poet and translator and would find it inconceivable to read Chaucer without being aware of the figures of Dante and Boccaccio in the background, or Shakespeare without Plutarch. Or indeed TS Eliot (himself an immigrant to the UK) without referring to 100 texts from other states in other languages. This form of internationalism is the lifeblood of art.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 17 books, including a translation of flash fictions by Mexican author Miguel Lupián, and co-edited two anthologies. He lives in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. He teaches at the University of Denver's University College, where he currently directs three programs: Professional Creative Writing, Arts & Culture Management, and Global Community Engagement. 
