"[A] well-defined, important primer on Latin American poetics." —Booklist "When we read a book we put it in front of our eyes, not behind them, which is to say, more or less, that we open ourselves to a dimension of our future."—Raúl Zurita, from the introduction This intensely focused bilingual anthology pinpoints the heart of Latin American self-identification. In selecting these fifteen essential poems, Chilean poet Raúl Zurita was guided by the question, "What poem, had it not been written, would have rendered the author another author and Latin American poetry something else?" This extraordinary gathering of talent—from Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda to Ernesto Cardenal and César Vallejo—spans the twentieth century. From "The Heights of Macchu Picchu": How many times in the wintry streets of a city or ina bus or a boat at dusk, or in the deepest loneliness, a night of revelry beneath the soundof shadows and bells, in the very grotto of human pleasureI've tried to stop and seek the eternal unfathomable lodethat I touched before on stone or in the lightning unleashed by a kiss . . . Raúl Zurita , winner of the Chilean National Prize for Literature, survived arrest and torture during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. He co-founded CADA (Colectivo de acción de arte), and has created huge poetic art pieces, including poems carved into cliffs that can only be read from the sky. Forrest Gander is a poet, translator, and professor at Brown University. His books have been named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award. Curated by award-winning Chilean poet Zurita, this bilingual anthology features one poem apiece from 15 Latin American poets. The selections, many of them quite lengthy, are intended to strike readers like the vastness of the Pacific or the peaks of the Andes. Zurita has chosen poets close to home, with six compatriot Chileans, and a preponderance of male poets. In an articulate and generous introduction, Zurita evaluates the authors against that pinnacle of Chilean male poets, Pablo Neruda. Each featured poet engages Neruda’s legacy with varying measures of reverence, malice, imitation, and satire. Gabriela Mistral’s role is as a foreshadowing figure; Nicanor Parra writes of the everyday; and Pablo de Rokha’s fixation is with the ruins, not the heights, of Machu Picchu. While Zurita favors long lines and mythopoeic subject matter, the anthology benefits from Mexican poet Jaime Sabines’ disinterest in apocalyptic heroics, as well as Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal’s relatively brief, tragicomic Prayer for Marilyn Monroe. Likewise, Zurita’s inclusion of first-generation Argentines Alejandra Pizarnik and Juan Gelman adds to this well-defined, important primer on Latin American poetics. --Diego Báez Raul Zurita: Raúl Zurita, winner of the Chilean National Prize for Literature, survived arrest and torture during Pinochet's dictatorship. He co-founded CADA (Colectivo de acción de arte), and has created huge poetic art pieces, including poems carved into cliffs that can only be read from the sky. Forrest Gander: Forrest Gander is a poet, translator, and professor at Brown University. His many honors include the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative North American Poetry and a Guggenheim Fellowship; his books have been named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.