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by Francisco X. Alarcón

For beloved writer and mentor Francisco X. Alarcón, the collection Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation was a poetic quest to reclaim a birthright. Originally published in 1992, the book propelled Alarcón to the forefront of contemporary Chicano letters.

Alarcón was a stalwart student, researcher, and specialist on the lost teachings of his Indigenous ancestors. He first found their wisdom in the words of his Mexica (Aztec) grandmother and then by culling through historical texts. During a Fulbright fellowship to Mexico, Alarcón uncovered the writings of zealously religious Mexican priest Hernando Ruiz de Alarcón (1587-1646), who collected (often using extreme measures), translated, and interpreted Nahuatl spells and invocations.

In Snake Poems Francisco Alarcón offered his own poetic responses, reclaiming the colonial manuscript and making it new. This special edition is a tender tribute to Alarcón, who passed away in 2016, and includes Nahuatl, Spanish, and English renditions of the 104 poems based on Nahuatl invocations and spells that have survived more than three centuries. The book opens with remembrances and testimonials about Alarcón’s impact as a writer, colleague, activist, and friend from former poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and poet and activist Odilia Galván Rodríguez, who writes, “This book is another one of those doors that [Francisco] opened and invited us to enter. Here we get to visit a snapshot in time of an ancient place of Nahuatl-speaking ancestors, and Francisco’s poetic response to what he saw through their eyes.”

Find it in Spanish Literature SPA 811 ALA here.

by Gabriela Mistral

The first Nobel Prize in literature to be awarded to a Latin American writer went to the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Famous and beloved during her lifetime all over Latin America and in Europe, Mistral has never been known in North America as she deserves to be. The reputation of her more flamboyant and accessible friend and countryman Pablo Neruda has overshadowed hers, and she has been officially sentimentalized into a “poetess” of children and motherhood. Translations, and even selections of her work in Spanish, have tended to underplay the darkness, the strangeness, and the raging intensity of her poems of grief and pain, the yearning power of her evocations of the Chilean landscape, the stark music of her Round Dances, the visionary splendor of her Hymns of America.

During her lifetime Mistral published four books: Desolation, Tenderness, Clearcut, and Winepress. These are included in the “Complete” Nobel edition published in Madrid; the Poem of Chile, her last book, was printed years after her death. Le Guin includes poems from all five books in this volume, with particular emphasis on the later work. The intelligence and passion of Le Guin’s selection and translation will finally allow people in the North to hear the originality, power, purity, and intransigence of this great American voice.

Le Guin has published five volumes of her own poetry, an English version of Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching, and a volume of mutual translation with the Argentine poet Diana Bellessi, The Twins, the Dream/Las Gemalas, El Sueño. Strongly drawn to Mistral’s work as soon as she discovered it, Le Guin has been working on this translation for five years.

Find it in Spanish Lit SPA 811.54 MIS here.

Six Contemporary Mexican Poets Writing in Indigenous Languages

by Victor Teran

Like A New Sun showcases the vibrant contemporary poetry being written in indigenous Mexican languages. Featuring poets writing in Huasteca, Nahuatl, Isthmus Zapotec, Mazatec, Tsotsil, Yucatec Maya, and Zoque, this groundbreaking anthology introduces readers to six of the most dynamic indigenous Mexican poets writing today. Co-edited by Isthmus Zapotec poet Víctor Terán and translator David Shook, this groundbreaking anthology introduces six indigenous Mexican poets — three women and three men — each writing in a different language. Well-established names like Juan Gregorio Regino (Mazatec) appear alongside exciting new voices like Mikeas Sánchez (Zoque). Each poet’s work is contextualized and introduced by its translator. Poets include Víctor Terán (Isthmus Zapotec), Mikeas Sánchez (Zoque), Juan Gregorio Regino (Mazatec), Juan Hernández (Huastecan Nahuatl), Briceida Cuevas Cob (Yucatec Maya), and Enriqueta Lunez (Tsotsil). Translators include Adam Coon, Jonathan Harrington, Jerome Rothenberg, David Shook, Clare Sullivan, and Eliot Weinberger.

Find it in Nonfiction 861.6 here.

by Ian Doescher

The New York Times Best Seller: Experience the Star Wars saga reimagined as an Elizabethan drama penned by William Shakespeare himself, complete with authentic meter and verse, and theatrical monologues and dialogue by everyone from Darth Vader to R2D2.

Return once more to a galaxy far, far away with this sublime retelling of George Lucas’s epic Star Wars in the style of the immortal Bard of Avon. The saga of a wise (Jedi) knight and an evil (Sith) lord, of a beautiful princess held captive and a young hero coming of age, Star Wars abounds with all the valor and villainy of Shakespeare’s greatest plays.

Authentic meter, stage directions, reimagined movie scenes and dialogue, and hidden Easter eggs throughout will entertain and impress fans of Star Wars and Shakespeare alike. Every scene and character from the film appears in the play, along with twenty woodcut-style illustrations that depict an Elizabethan version of the Star Wars galaxy. Zounds! This is the book you’re looking for.

Find the ebook in Libby/Overdrive here.

In the second season of Poetry in America, guests join Elisa New to discuss the poems of Marilyn Chin, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Mark Doty, Yusef Komunyakaa, Stephen Sondheim, William Carlos Williams, and Walt Whitman.

Streaming on Kanopy here.

by Amanda Gorman

The instant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller


The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future.

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.