For those of you who missed seeing the Brazilian poets Maria Esther Maciel, Paulo Henriques Britto, Sergio Medeiros, and Virna Teixiera on their recent visit to Chicago, you missed some great events. They were all a pleasure to hear and meet, and if that wasn't enough, wandering in the crowds at the readings was Joao Almino, one of Brazil's important novelists (among other things).
Listening to the poets talk made me want to learn more about Brazilian poetry, but in my search for translations, I've found little. Just this morning I was looking for a work by Leminski and could find nothing. That is not good. Often I feel that American poets are too self-concerned. Just as an example, recently I was looking for information on a poet I'm writing about, and I found her statement in an interview that she does not read poetry, just writes it. That is troubling too me.
On another note, Paulo Henriques Britto stated that Brazilian poetry is not longer about schools, that it's grown diverse, so that speaking in terms of schools seems antiquated. I think the same thing is happening in the United States. Academics, and I am one, like to bicker about schools, but really the marked dividing lines are growing extremely thin. I don't mean that traditions cannot still be seen--they can, but individual poets are picking pieces from diverse traditions (really just diverse poets) and following them, so showing lineage seems to be more important than showing a connection to an "ism."
Listening to the poets talk made me want to learn more about Brazilian poetry, but in my search for translations, I've found little. Just this morning I was looking for a work by Leminski and could find nothing. That is not good. Often I feel that American poets are too self-concerned. Just as an example, recently I was looking for information on a poet I'm writing about, and I found her statement in an interview that she does not read poetry, just writes it. That is troubling too me.
On another note, Paulo Henriques Britto stated that Brazilian poetry is not longer about schools, that it's grown diverse, so that speaking in terms of schools seems antiquated. I think the same thing is happening in the United States. Academics, and I am one, like to bicker about schools, but really the marked dividing lines are growing extremely thin. I don't mean that traditions cannot still be seen--they can, but individual poets are picking pieces from diverse traditions (really just diverse poets) and following them, so showing lineage seems to be more important than showing a connection to an "ism."
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