|
Peter Cole: What is Doubled: Poems 1981-1998
Paperback, 212pp, 9" x 6", ISBN 0-907562-79-5. £10.95 (UK) $17 (USA)
This volume gathers between a single set of covers the two highly-
praised books of poems published by Peter Cole in the United States —
Rift and Hymns & Qualms. The doubling of its title, however, runs
deeper, and reflects Cole's long engagement with the cultures of
Jerusalem and linkage at every level. Whether a poem takes up the
patterns of bird flight, the Eros of speech, or the slaughter of
Muslim worshippers by a Jewish settler in Hebron, the poet's concern
throughout has been with forms of offering and strategies of
sustenance. What Is Doubled "envelops light as it conveys
light" (Bradford Morrow), and introduces readers to what American
poet David Shapiro has called "a startling synthesis of the poetry of
wisdom and the freshest music."
In addition to his two collections of poems, Peter Cole has published
many volumes of translations from medieval and contemporary Hebrew
and Arabic. Cole has received numerous awards for his work, including
a TLS Translation Prize, the PEN-America Translation Award, and a
fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Born and raised
in the United States, he now lives in Jerusalem, where he co-edits
Ibis Editions.
Yang Lian (ed): Sailor's Home
Paperback, 156pp, 9" x 6", ISBN 0-907562-86-8. £9.95 (UK), $16 (USA).
Home from the sea — words on the waves.
A Sailor's Home suggests many years of travel, cross-cultural
contacts, a place of rest after too much time spent on the high seas.
This particular Sailor's Home is a record of a private poetry
festival held in London in October 2005 at which six poets, sailing
in from six different languages, came together with a group of
invited guests to read and discuss one other's work. This miscellany
of the work written for the occasion is presented in the original
languages and in English translation.
The poets taking their respite in the Sailor's Home are Arjen Duinker
(Netherlands), W.N. Herbert (U.K.), Uwe Kolbe (Germany), Peter
Laugesen (Denmark), Karine Martel (France) and Yang Lian (China);
their able translators are, respectively, jeltje, Mick Standen & Jo
Tudor, Anne Born, Vivienne Vermes and Brian Holton.
Lutz Seiler: In the year one. Selected Poems.
Translated by Tony Frazer
Paperback, 93pp, 6.7" x 5.9" ISBN 1-920882-11-1. £8.00.
Published in the U.K. 15 October 2005. (Published in Australia by
Giramondo Publishing, Sydney; distributed in the UK by Shearsman
Books. Non-UK orders to Giramondo, Sydney.)
The first book-length colection of Lutz Seiler's work in English
translation, In the year one contains poems drawn from his two major
German collections pech & blende and vierzig kilometer nacht.
Ouyang Yu: Moon over Melbourne & other poems
Paperback, 128pp, 8.5" x 5.5", ISBN 0-907562-85-X. Retail price
£9.95 in the UK, $16 in the USA.
Moon over Melbourne is a revised edition of the author's first
English-language collection, published in Australia in 1995. It makes
a fascinating document, recording as it does the tribulations and
misunderstandings of the new immigrant, one who can prick the self-
conscious bubble-lives of the natives, oblivious to their
peculiarities, and also one who can make all the mistakes of the
newcomer to an alien society.
Born in Huangzhou, Hubei, in the People's Republic of China, Ouyang
Yu completed an MA in English and Australian Literature in Shanghai
and worked as an interpreter, translator and lecturer in China. He
went to Australia in 1991 to complete a PhD at La Trobe University,
Melbourne, on the representation of the Chinese in Australian fiction
(awarded 1995). He writes in both English and Chinese. Best known for
his poetry, he has also written fiction and criticism in both
languages, and has translated over a dozen major Australian literary
texts into Chinese. He is the founding editor of Otherland, the first
(and so far the only) bilingual journal of Chinese-Australian
writing. He has won a number of major grants for fiction, non-
fiction, poetry and translation.
Ouyang Yu is a controversial figure within Australian literature,
sometimes characterised as 'the angry Chinese poet.' His work
captures the frustrations (personal, social, professional and sexual)
of the migrant experience and hits out at the indifference and
hostility with which Australia has greeted recent waves of Asian
immigration. His raw, uncompromising style (according to one critic,
the 'deliberate unloveliness' of his language) challenges literary as
well as social establishments at the same time as it engages in
courageous acts of introspection and self-criticism. Ouyang typifies
the new generation of post-colonial writers and intellectuals who can
write with detachment about the forces of globalisation and their
impact on East-West relations and at the same time acknowledge their
complex and often painful impact on their own life and work.
Coming soon: titles by Tom Lowenstein, Elaine Randell, Nigel Wheale
and Catherine Walsh.
___________________________________
Tony Frazer
Shearsman Books Ltd
58 Velwell Road
Exeter EX4 4LD
England
Tel / Fax: (+44) (0) 1392-434511
http://www.shearsman.com/
___________________________________
|
