Each bilingual volume in The Defiant Muse series includes 60 to 80 poems by both well-known and rediscovered poets, selected on the basis of their individual merit and as illustrations of the evolution of feminist thought and feeling. Reflecting their own cultural milieus as well as enduring themes, the poets write of love and friendship, revolution and peace, religion, nature, isolation, work, and family. The Dutch, French, German, and Italian volumes represent their respective countries; the Hispanic volume includes poems from the many Spanish-speaking nations; and the Hebrew volume encompasses writing in Hebrew from around the world. The poems are presented in their original languages alongside English translations. Each volume includes an introduction, placing the poetry in historical and aesthetic perspective, and full biographical and bibliographical notes on the poets.

A contact bomb, a volcano ready to erupt" describes not only Central America in the 1980s but-in the conception of its editors-this anthology of contraband poetry. The poems themselves were often copied by hand and smuggled onto Mexico, from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. In all those countries, except Nicaragua, this poetry is banned. The thirty-nine poets represented here give potent voice to the struggles of their peoples under the crushing oppression of life "under the volcano" in these war-stunned lands. Many of these women and men have been jailed, exiled, killed, or otherwise made to disappear. Still they survive in these faithful and sensitive translations by a new literary underground in North America.

Presents more than two hundred poems by sixteen Spanish and Latin American poets from the Renaissance and baroque periods and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in Spanish and in English translations by noted poets.

"The editor of this anthology addresses this literary omission by identifying seventeen Uruguayans deserving of recognition: Jorge Arbeleche, Nancy Bacelo, Washington Benavides, Mario Benedetti, Amanda Berenguer, Luis Bravo, Selva Casal, Rafael Courtoisie, Marosa Di Giorgio, Enrique Fierro, Alfredo Fressia, Saul Ibargoyen, Circe Maia, Jorge Meretta, Eduardo Milan, Alvaro Miranda, and Salvador Puig. The selection of these poets is based on extensive research and personal taste, but also because they have a recognized, sustained record of published books of poetry, especially during the 1990s; they have been favorably acknowledged for their work by peers and critics--through reviews and interviews in local news media; they have received recognition through national or international literary awards; and, for the most part, they are still active as poets in the new millennium. Furthermore, they comprise a representative cross section of diverse generations, perspectives, themes, and poetics extant in today's poetry in Uruguay." "Each of the poets is represented by a selection of original poems in Spanish to demonstrate the diversity of their expression and English translations to render them meaningful for both English and Spanish reading publics. The extensive bibliographies of primary and secondary sources of each poet is unprecedented; hopefully it will serve as a guide to encourage research on this neglected area of Spanish American literature. There is currently no canon of contemporary Uruguayan poets, but this project is intended to provide a meaningful step toward opening a discussion of such a canon."--BOOK JACKET.