Exotic Territory: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Paraguayan Poetry seeks to address a dearth of information in the English-speaking world about Paraguayan poetry of the past forty years. The twelve outstanding poets included hereJos Luis Appleyard, Moncho Azuaga, Gladys Carmagnola, Susy Delgado, Oscar Ferreiro, Rene Ferrer, Joaqun Morales, Amanda Pedrozo, Jacobo Rauskin, Elvio Romero, Ricardo de La Vega, Carlos Villagra Marsalrepresent a wide diversity of themes, styles, and perspectives in this little-known nation. Most of them have published extensively, have been recognized through literary awards and inclusion in national and international anthologies, and continue writing today. To contextualize the poets and their poetry for readers unfamiliar with Paraguay, the Introduction provides a brief background of its geography, history, government, economy, society, and artistic milieu. Following that is a wide selection of representative poems published previously in Spanish, with translations in English on facing pages. The book concludes with a brief biographical sketch of each poet, followed by an unprecedented and extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources intended to encourage those readers who might want to pursue further reading or research on any poet of interest.

Andean Journeys: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Bolivian Poetry is the fourth in a series of books that aspire to address a dearth of information in the English-speaking world about South American poetry of the past thirty years. The fourteen outstanding poets included here represent a diversity of themes, styles, and perspectives in one of South Americas more marginalized nations. All of them have published extensively, have been recognized through literary awards and inclusion in national and international anthologies, and continue writing and publishing today. For readers unfamiliar with Bolivia, the introduction provides a brief background of its geography, history, politics, economy, and society. This is followed by an ample selection of representative poems published previously in Spanish, with translations in English on facing pages. The book concludes with a brief biographical sketch of each poet and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources for readers wishing to pursue further reading or research. Contemporary Uruguayan Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology; Exotic Territory: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Paraguayan Poetry; and Volcanic Reflections: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Ecuadorian Poetry are companion volumes that offer similar exposure to poetry that deserves to be better known in the English-speaking world.

Volcanic Reflections: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Ecuadorian Poetry is the third in a series of books that aspires to address a dearth of information in the English-speaking world about South American poetry of the past thirty years. The nineteen outstanding poets included here represent a wide diversity of themes, styles, and perspectives in one of South Americas smaller nations. All of them have published extensively, have been recognized through literary awards and inclusion in national and international anthologies, and continue writing and publishing today. For readers unfamiliar with Ecuador, the Introduction provides a brief background of its geography, history, politics, economy, and society. This is followed by an ample selection of representative poems published previously in Spanish, with translations in English on facing pages. The book concludes with a brief biographical sketch of each poet and an unprecedented bibliography of primary and secondary sources for those readers who might want to pursue further reading or research on any poet of interest. Contemporary Uruguayan Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology and Exotic Territory: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Paraguayan Anthology are two companion volumes that offer similar exposure to poetry that deserves to be better known in the English-speaking world.

Mapuche poetry has flourished in recent decades and is now one of the most compelling neighbourhoods of contemporary Latin American literature. Incredibly, however, much of it remains untranslated into English. Not only does this anthology correct the situation, it goes far beyond the scale of anything published before. Some of the most important and exciting Mapuche poets are gathered here. Providing versions of each poem in Mapudungun, Spanish and English, Poetry of the Earth demonstrates how Mapuche poetry is so much more than just a collection of poems, or an act of writing. Rather, it is an expression of a long, rich and dynamic history, which at different times and places has made use of many kinds of musical, literary and linguistic forms. As the poems are often operatic in their scope and register, the anthology as a whole is also a sophisticated ensemble of languages, cultures, critics and poets. Translations by Mapuche and Settler Chileans meet the translations of Chileans and Australians on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Then, Aboriginal, Mapuche and Settler scholars provide extremely useful introductory essays. Poetry of the Earth is a remarkable example of Australian-Chilean resonance, and of the shared history of European colonisation of indigenous peoples around the world. This is not just an anthology of poetry from a distant land and language; it’s an illustration of a vital, trans-Pacific force. - Stuart Cooke, Griffith University

I the Supreme imagines a dialogue between the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator known as Dr. Francia and Policarpo Patiño, his secretary and only companion. The opening pages present a sign that they had found nailed to the wall of a cathedral, purportedly written by Dr. Francia himself and ordering the execution of all of his servants upon his death. This sign is quickly revealed to be a forgery, which takes leader and secretary into a larger discussion about the nature of truth: “In the light of what Your Eminence says, even the truth appears to be a lie.” Their conversation broadens into an epic journey of the mind, stretching across the colonial history of their nation, filled with surrealist imagery, labyrinthine turns, and footnotes supplied by a mysterious “compiler.” A towering achievement from a foundational author of modern Latin American literature, I the Supreme is a darkly comic, deeply moving meditation on power and its abuse—and on the role of language in making and unmaking whole worlds.

From the late fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the Hispanic Monarchy was one of the largest and most diverse political communities known in history. At its apogee, it stretched from the Castilian plateau to the high peaks of the Andes; from the cosmopolitan cities of Seville, Naples, or Mexico City to Santa Fe and San Francisco; from Brussels to Buenos Aires and from Milan to Manila. During those centuries, Spain left its imprint across vast continents and distant oceans contributing in no minor way to the emergence of our globalised era. This was true not only in an economic sense-the Hispano-American silver peso transported across the Atlantic and the Pacific by the Spanish fleets was arguably the first global currency, thus facilitating the creation of a world economic system-but intellectually and artistically as well. The most extraordinary cultural exchanges took place in practically every corner of the Hispanic world, no matter how distant from the metropolis. At various times a descendant of the Aztec nobility was translating a Baroque play into Nahuatl to the delight of an Amerindian and mixed audience in the market of Tlatelolco; an Andalusian Dominican priest was writing the first Western grammar of the Chinese language in Fuzhou, a Chinese city that enjoyed a trade monopoly with the Spanish Philippines; a Franciscan friar was composing a piece of polyphonic music with lyrics in Quechua to be played in a church decorated with Moorish-style ceilings in a Peruvian valley; or a multi-ethnic team of Amerindian and Spanish naturalists was describing in Latin, Spanish and local vernacular languages thousands of medicinal plants, animals and minerals previously unknown to the West. And, most probably, at the same time that one of those exchanges were happening, the members of the School of Salamanca were laying the foundations of modern international law or formulating some of the first modern theories of price, value and money, Cervantes was writing Don Quixote, Velázquez was painting Las Meninas, or Goya was exposing both the dark and bright sides of the European Enlightenment. Actually, whenever we contemplate the galleries devoted to Velázquez, El Greco, Zurbarán, Murillo or Goya in the Prado Museum in Madrid; when we visit the National Palace in Mexico City, a mission in California, a Jesuit church in Rome or the Intramuros quarter in Manila; or when we hear Spanish being spoken in a myriad of accents in the streets of San Francisco, New Orleans or Manhattan we are experiencing some of the past and present fruits of an always vibrant and still expanding cultural community. As the reader can infer by now, this book is about how Spain and the larger Hispanic world have contributed to world history and in particular to the history of civilisation, not only at the zenith of the Hispanic Monarchy but throughout a much longer span of time.

Focusing on a period neglected by scholars, Higgins reconstructs how during the colonial period criollos - individuals identified as being of Spanish descent born in America - elaborated a body of knowledge, an "archive," in order to establish their intellectual autonomy within the Spanish colonial administrative structures." "This book opens up an important area of research that will be of interest to scholars and students of Spanish American colonial literature and history."--BOOK JACKET.