Mark Statman, translator - BLACK TULIPS: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa | Octavia Books | New Orleans, Louisiana

Start: 02/25/2013 6:00 pm

A major literary achievement, a compelling translation, a lyrical force

Please join us for a reading, presentation and book signing with translator/poet Mark Statman featuring BLACK TULIPS: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa.

Pablo Medina writes, "BLACK TULIPS: The Selected Poems of José María Hinojosa, translated by Mark Statman, is a major literary achievement... Statman has unearthed the poetry of a long-forgotten member of the Generation of '27. Thanks to Statman, Hinojosa's work can now be accorded its proper place among that august group. Statman's acumen as both poet and translator is evident in every page. The results are translations that are faithful to Hinojosa's originals while standing as fine English poems in their own right." Nicholas Birns affirms, "Mark Statman's compelling translations bring alive the many sides of Hinojosa—the elegiac, the contemplative, the poignant, and, in the utterly unexpected poem about the actress Lillian Gish, the truly hilarious. Hinojosa above all is a profound poet of human love in all its manifestations, as celebrated in nature and as clung to amid the mesh of war and suffering. Those who thought they knew twentieth-century Spanish poetry will have to reboot their cognitive maps after experiencing these concise, uncanny, perennially surprising poems." Willis Barnstone acknowledges that, "José María Hinojosa fell young with a bullet, losing both pen and memory. In this act of restoration, Mark Statman brings the Andalusian poet alive." Barnstone continues, "Statman's exquisite version is our gift."

BLACK TULIPS, released in October 2012, is a selection from the poetry of José María Hinojosa, the first English translation of a well-known poet of Spain’s famed Generation of '27. His surrealist poetry contrasted with his right wing politics, causing him to break with the group during the Spanish Republic. He was assassinated by Republican sympathizers in 1936 and his writing disappeared from Spanish culture until the end of the 20th century.

The collection is swiftly becoming a mainstream in translation and has been receiving some great press. On December 2nd, "Possible Elegy" from the book was featured as the poem of the day on Poetry Daily poems.com), and New Pages named BLACK TULIPS a "New & Noteworthy" book of 2012.

Mark Statman was born in New York City. An associate professor at The New School for the Liberal Arts, he attended Columbia University. Statman's recent books are the poetry collection Tourist at a Miracle and, with Pablo Medina, Federico García Lorca's Poet in New York. His work has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Katherine, and their son Jesse.