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A highly-acclaimed master work of fiction from Cartarescu, author of Blinding: an existence (and eventually a cosmos) created by forking paths.Based on CA rtA rescu's own role as a high school teacher, Solenoid begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.The novel is grounded in the reality of late 1970s/early 1980s Communist Romania, including long lines for groceries, the absurdities of the education system, and the misery of family life. The text includes sequences in a tuberculosis sanatorium, an encounter with an anti-death protest movement, a society of dream investigators, and an extended visit to the miniscule world of dust mites living on a microscope slide.Combining fiction with autobiography and history- the scientists Nicolae Tesla and George Boole, for example, appear alongside the Voynich manuscript-Solenoid ruminates on the exchanges possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various, monstrous dimensions erupt within the Communist present.

The long-awaited English-language translation debut of Mexican literary maestro Sergio Pitol's 1984 Herralde Prize-winning novel, which paints a riotous picture of a wartime Mexico City filled with refugees and intelligentsia - and murder.

English debut with three linked novellas by influential cult Portuguese writer interweaving history, poetry, and philosophy into transcendent literary vision.

Tetra Nova tells the story of Lua Mater, an obscure Roman goddess who re-imagines herself as an assassin coming to terms with an emerging performance artist identity in the late-20th century. The operatic text begins in Saigon, where she meets a little girl named Emi, an American of Vietnamese-Japanese descent visiting her mother's country for the first time since the war's end. As the voices of Lua and Emi blend into one dissociated narration, the stories accelerate out of sequence, mapping upon the globe a series of collective memories and traumas passed from one generation to the next. Darting between the temples of Nagasaki, the mountains of Tucson, and an island refugee camp off the coast of Malaysia, Lua and Emi in one embodied memory travel across the English language itself to make sense of a history neither wanted. When a tiny Panda named Panda suddenly arrives, fate intervenes, and the work acts as a larger historical document, unpacking legacies of genocide and the radical modes of resistance that follow. At the heart of this production lies a postcolonial identity in exile, and the performers must come to terms with who may or may not carry their stories forward: Emi or Lua. Part dreamscape, part investigative poetics, multiple fragmenting identities traverse across time and space, the mythic and the profane, toward an understanding of humanity beyond those temple chamber doors.

In lyrical, unconstrained prose, debut author Tom Ross tells a story of intergenerational change and conflict in a Black American family in the pre-Civil Rights era.Lorraine "Rain" Franklin--whose family made their way north as part of the Great Migration and have settled in the nearly all-white Finger Lakes region of upstate New York--is lost. She stumbles through a series of questionable romantic encounters and assumed identities, and eventually into an unplanned pregnancy, struggling both to define herself in and against a hostile world and to achieve autonomy from her mother's repressive anxieties. Rain's misadventures are a parable of what it means to confront, however imperfectly, the contradictions of a Black community defining itself in midcentury America.For 25 years, Tom Ross has been amassing the semi-autobiographical history of the extended Franklin family. Miss Abracadabra is the culmination and first extended publication from this astonishing storytelling project, which--through multiple viewpoints--fractures and reconfigures historical experience into infinite narrative possibilities.

A contemporary classic from award-winning author Carmen Boullosa, in the tradition of Juan Rulfo, Jorge Louis Borge and Cesair Aira, now available in a special 10th anniversary edition.Loosely based on the little-known 1859 Mexican invasion of the United States, Texas: The Great Theft is a richly imagined evocation of the volatile Tex-Mex borderland. Boullosa views border history through a new lens decentering US narratives, and her sympathetic portrayal of each of her wildly diverse characters--Mexican ranchers and Texas Rangers, Comanches and cowboys, German socialists and runaway slaves, Southern belles and dancehall girls--makes her storytelling tremendously powerful and absorbing. Featuring a new introduction by a prominent writer, the Tenth Anniversary edition of Texas sheds important historical light on current battles over the Mexican-American frontier while telling a gripping story with Boullosa's singular prose and formal innovation.

"Knit Ink (and Other Poems) illuminates the range of formal poetry, from the traditional to the experimental; from the simple to the highly complex. By employing both classical forms and alphabetical restrictions, often in combination, it explores the varying extents to which meaning submits to linguistic structure and music. Some of the poems study special or simplified cases of established literary restrictions (anagrams, palindromes) and poetic forms (triolets, sonnets); some create their own constraint (aelindrome, aelinscapes); while others are structural indulgences - tests of technical complexity, whose poetry lies as much in the grandeur of their architecture as in the content of their words. A series of four books whose composition took over a decade, Knit Ink (and Other Poems) sees these four books combined in a single edition for the first time"--

The novel that reportedly caused a walkout upon publication, this grotesque, absurdist work by Russia's de Sade follows four individuals set upon a common goal of destruction and violence.

"A dive into a post-human, more-than-human world where life as we know it has been replaced by life as it goes on"--

"In the inner sanctum of an elite boarding school, boys test their boundaries and class when they welcome an outsider. In 1960, St. Philip's School, a famously exclusive boys boarding school, grudgingly admits its first scholarship student. As the nursery to America's aristocracy, St. Philip's has no notion what to expect of 13-year-old Woodrow Scaggs, the white son of an autoworker. Will he even eat with knife and fork? Woodrow believes that if any boy calls him a certain name, he must fight him to the death. Of course, he is called that name on his first night. In Pontiac, boys equally stupid and equally wonderful in spite of class differences, weave their own lost-boys culture and form life-lasting bonds"--

A bold, multilingual anthology of Yazidi poetic voices.Ten years have passed since the 73rd genocide of the Yazidis, who have faced ongoing persecution, displacement and ethnic cleansing from their ancestral lands in the Kurdish regions. In wake of this new genocidal violence, new poetic voices have emerged in university campuses and IDP camps along the borders of Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. With globalizing forces compounding the erasure of their culture and traditions, the Yazidi poets in this multilingual anthology firmly stand their ground, their art a testament to Yazidi resistance and presence.The poetic tradition of the Yazidis has historically preserved and documented instances of their traditions, dispossessions and erasures. This anthology joins in this chorus; it is its own act of witnessing to recount the 2014 genocide for future generations. It is also a documenting of their dreams, hopes, trials of the poets and their families, community-making practices as shown by how the editors and poets found each other and came together.  Translated from both Arabic and Kurmanji, the poets in this anthology affirm that they, indeed, will not let Yazidi voices be missed from this world.

In Europe after World War II, amid a landscape of rubble, skeletal figures and almost absolute social and psychological helplessness, a girl and a man wander among the ruins. Hanna, a 12-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome, is looking for her father. Marius, her companion, seems to be hiding from something. Aided by a simple instruction card, Hanna launches into the exploration of what a human being is, as Tavares creates an abstract yet touching portrait of the true victims of war.

A brutally comic portrait of marriage, taken to extremes reminiscent of the work of Samuel Beckett and Thomas Bernhard. Edwin Mortens is almost blind, but has good hearing; his wife Erna is hard of hearing, but can see perfectly. Edwin sits locked in his bathroom all day, every day, trying to liberate his mind from his body. The experiment is going relatively well: nearly all his bodily functions have ceased, his limbs are in a state of decay, and his digestive system is in the process of breaking down. "This body," he says, "is a sewer." To pass the time, Edwin dedicates his days to chewing gum and screaming at his wife, on whom he is, nonetheless, entirely dependent; meanwhile, Erna's life, despite Edwin's constant abuse, revolves around her hideous husband. Edwin and Erna live in a state of perfect equilibrium—fueled by habit, cruelty, humiliation, and quite possibly love—until their building's young superintendent is called to replace a lightbulb in Edwin's bathroom, and the "Siamese twins" find themselves embroiled in a new and vicious struggle for power.

An ambitious epic novel showcases the brutal elements of human nature and mother nature alike in Iceland's most desolate region

Winner of the State Prize for Poetry in Cyprus, these experimental linked poem-threads move across time, linking a young Cypriot to ancestors, contemporaries, and descendants through striking, disparate polyphony.In this bilingual collection of linked poems, Kefala creates a tapestry of motifs that transcend time and identity across early 20th Century Cyprus, 16th Century Scotland, a sailor on Christopher Columbus’ ship La Pinta, and more. As the poem threads draw together, it is as if the protagonist, in his travels through the twentieth century, encounters Odysseus, Cervantes, Columbus, Rembrandt, and others, all moving in multidimensional synchronicity. In this way, the readers take part in the production of meaning by pulling the threads together, stitching together their own reading of the story. Through the reading of these threads, time remains fluid, creating a masterful declaration about the function of poetry: perhaps history is nothing more than the presence of innumerable human voices, some more and some less powerful, coexisting in an eternal present.

Follow the classic tale of the trickster Brer Rabbit in a one-of-a-kind trilingual edition, featuring Nahuatl, Spanish, and English languages alongside traditional amate bark paintings.

Debut book in English, a modern literary sci-fi classic right out of Havana for fans of Yoss and the speculative/science fiction crowd hungry for more stories like this out of Latin America; this is set in a near-future Havana, an amazing story. Translator lives in Dallas and will be doing lots of events for this too!

A new poetic form from Fiston Mwanza Mujila, lauded author of novels Tram 83 and The Villain's Dance and poetry collection The River in the Belly.Kasala Poems are rooted in a traditional form of praise poem that ties together proverbs, myths, fables, and riddles into a recitation, accompanied by music. In Mwanza Mujila’s skilled hands, this becomes a multimedia form, set to the page while retaining the remarkable drama, emotion, and celebration of its performed root. In Kasala Poems, multiple lyrical traditions create a hybrid world of different global spaces and layers of time. Within this world, everything is possible, real and surreal at the same time. With the rhythmic, frenetic energy found in his poetry, prose, and performances, Fiston Mwanza Mujila reanimates and simultaneously deconstructs ideas of the (post)colonial environment.

"One of the few book-length poetry collections from Säao Tomâe to appear in English, Lima's poetry is grounded in place and history of the region. A career-spanning collection from Sao Tomean master Conceicao Lima, No Gods Live Here summons the intricacies of her personal history of the landscape with the complicated lineage of the region. Lima houses the cruelties of the country's past alongside childhood memories, flora, and fauna. Through vivid imagery, Lima's deep evocations of Säao Tomâe extend from popular Santomean music to imagery of fishermen on the beach, while ever-aware of the subjective meeting of memory, time, and place. Through poetry, Lima brings past and present together to resurrect hope in human creation and the possibility of metamorphosis"--

"Best Literary Translations (BLT) is a new, annual anthology that celebrates world literatures in English translation and honors the literary journals that publish that work. BLT features poetry and prose originally written in twenty-two languages, brought into English by thirty-eight of the most talented translators working today. The four co-editors chose a long list of finalists from the five hundred nominations. BLT's poems, short stories, essays, and hybrid works were drawn from submissions that spanned more than eighty countries and nearly sixty languages. Featuring work from the top literary journals with US-based editors, ranging from Asymptote to Words Without Borders, BLT honors some of the excellent literature created by a diverse range of authors and translators. This anthology redefines the canon of global literatures in English translation, showcasing the brave and brilliant work of contemporary translators and editors. Guest-edited by Jane Hirshfield to include both contemporary and historical works for the inaugural edition; co-edited by: Noh Anothai, Wendy Call, Kola Tubosun and Oyku Tekten"--

Despite moral pressure and exhaustion, Sentsov's records display his diligence and objective eye as filmmaker and activist.A remarkable two-book volume: Diary of A Hunger Striker, the first-hand account of celebrated Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, jailed unfairly as a political prisoner, during his 145-day-long hunger strike in a Russian prison; and Four and a Half Steps, his newest collection of short stories. Sentsov’s prison diary begins three days into his indefinite hunger strike, as he calls for the release of all political prisoners in Russia. Frank, sharp, and detailed, the diary recounts day after day of observations and thoughts about his daily life, from interactions with guards, police officers good and bad, to his thoughts on fellow writers and the world outside his cell.

"Told in three distinct voices, Short War brings together a rapturous teenage love story set in Chile, the hunt for the author of an eye-opening literary detective story, and a complex reckoning with American political intervention in South America. When sixteen-year-old Gabriel Lazris-an American in Santiago, Chile-meets Caro Ravest, something clicks. Caro, who is Chilean, is charming, curious, and deeply herself. Gabriel dreams of their future together. But everybody's saying there's going to be a coup-and no one says it louder than Gabriel's dad, a Nixon-loving newspaper editor who Gabriel suspects is working with the C.I.A. Gabriel's father is adamant that the moment political unrest erupts, their family is going home. To Gabriel, though, Chile is home. Decades later, Gabriel's American-raised adult daughter Nina heads to Buenos Aires in a last-ditch effort to save her dissertation. Quickly, though, she gets sidetracked: first by a sexy professor, then by a controversial book called Guerra Eterna. A document of war and an underground classic, Guerra Eterna transforms Nina's sense of her family and identity, pushing her to confront the moral weight of being an American citizen in a hemisphere long dominated by U.S. power. But not until Short War's coda do we get true insight into the divergent fortunes of Gabriel Lazris and Caro Ravest. Shaped by the geopolitical forces that brought far-right dictators like Pinochet to power, their fates reverberate through generations, evoking thorny questions about power, privilege, and how to live with the guilt of the past"--

"A narrative and poetic experience in which body, memory and delirium clash to recompose the world and, therefore, the identity of the self. Divided Island is the story of a woman with a neurological disorder. The day she goes in for an encephalogram, which will diagnose her cerebral dysrhythmia, she finds herself splitting in two. One of the two women she becomes decides to travel to an island to take her own life; the other remains behind and follows the trail of her suicidal other half. The focus of this non-linear novel is not the sequence of events, but the writing used to describe those events in brief chapters and fragments. Divided Island is a fractal novel, best read as a poetic experience; the text's importance lies not in the plot but in how its language is crafted into a collection of scenes, moments, memories, dreams, and images the gradually coalesce into the story of a life told from a singular location: a way of perceiving and describing the world, guided by dysrhythmia"--

"A new biography of the beloved but mysterious Blind Lemon Jefferson, famous blues musician. Born in 1897, Jefferson was a blind street musician who played his guitar at the corner of Elm Street and Central Avenue in the Deep Ellum area of Dallas, Texas, until a Paramount Records scout discovered him. Between 1926 and his untimely death in 1929, Jefferson made more than 80 records and became the biggest-selling blues singer in America. Although his recordings are extensive, details about his life are relatively few. Through Govenar and Lornell's extensive interviews and research, See That My Grave is Kept Clean gathers the scattered facts behind Blind Lemon Jefferson's mythic representations"--

"Just outside of downtown Dallas lies a section of the city called Deep Ellum, where graffiti and murals decorate the walls of trendy shops, loft apartments, restaurants, nightclubs, art galleries, and tattoo studios. The area has been home to a remarkable array of businesses, creatives, and artistic practices since its birth 150 years ago as a Black center of business. Because of the area's long association with blues and jazz musicians, Deep Ellum has been shrouded in myth and misconceptions which obscure its actual history. Alan Govenar and Jay Brakefield-using oral histories, old newspapers and photographs, city directories and maps, as well as more traditional public records and secondary sources-reveal another side of Deep Ellum which includes Central Track (formerly called Central Avenue), an area lined with Black-owned businesses which served both Black and white patrons during its heyday in the 1920s and 30s. In the Deep Ellum and Central Track areas, African Americans and whites, primarily Eastern European Jews, operated businesses from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, creating a unique social climate where cultural interaction took place. Much of the information in the book is presented through the stories of remarkable individuals, including professionals, pawnbrokers and other merchants, police officers, criminals, and the blues and jazz musicians who had a lasting impact on American popular music"--

"The River of Goodness is a lyrical, global exploration of the ways we can create a more just and sustainable world for all, from the author of The River Always Wins and I AM A TEACHER. Every day, posits Marquis, every single human has to make a choice: accept the world the way it is or work to make it better. Each of us can pursue the work of goodness in many ways. The River of Goodness, the second volume in Marquis's River Trilogy, provides real-world examples of people who have taken on the work of goodness, whether through thankless tasks or in dangerous and challenging circumstances. This follow-up to Marquis's beloved first volume, The River Always Wins, argues that making the world better is rooted in the hard daily work of creating change that lasts"--

"An unabashed exploration of queerness, excess, identity, and tenderness from award-winning poet Dorothy Chan. The speaker in Dorothy Chan's fifth collection, Return of the Chinese Femme, walks through life fearlessly, "forehead forever exposed," the East Asian symbol of female aggression. She's the troublemaker protagonist-the "So Chinese Girl"-the queer in a family of straights- the rambunctious ringleader of the girl band, always ready with the perfect comeback, wearing a blue fur coat, drinking a whiskey neat. They indulge on the themes of food, sex, fantasy, fetish, popular culture, and intimacy. Chan organizes the collection in the form of a tasting menu, offering the reader a taste of each running theme. Triple sonnets, recipe poems, and other inventive plays on diction and form pepper the collection. Amidst the bravado, Return of the Chinese Femme represents all aspects of her identity-Asian heritage, queerness, kid of immigrants' story-in the most real ways possible, conquering the world through joy and resilience"--

"A book of poetry meant to conjure the future while nourishing the present, Julie Poole's second collection is inspired by movement within a Texan cityscape. Written 2016-2017 during a taut political moment, Gorgeous Freak follows Poole's decision to start keeping a poetry journal while commuting by foot around Austin. Her intent, folded carefully in these slender and jagged poems, is to call out to a future soulmate, pulling them back into her present: hot, humid Austin, Texas in the first year of the Trump presidency, traversed by foot miles a day, watching the seasons change through surrounding urban flora and fauna"--

"Occupy Whiteness is a collection of hybrid erasure poems from inaugural Dallas Poet Laureate and multi-world slam competition winner Joaquâin Zihuatanejo. Using long-form works of literature by white, male, straight authors, Zihuatanejo occupies these works by erasing words and pages of these works, leaving only a handful of each work. The white space that remains becomes colonized Brown verse. Occupy Whiteness is an act of rebellion that reclaims spaces and highlights a history of erasure of Brown life. These poems are also haunted and blessed by the image of abuelos who brave the river and desert into border states for the opportunity of freedom. Ultimately these poems are meant to agitate and create uneasiness that makes the reader realize that Zihuatanejo and immigrant children are not Other. These poems strive to depict this equally beautiful and brutal place we call home"--