poetry | E. Rowan Mena

Remembering Adrienne Rich

March 29, 2012 by E. Rowan

Some years ago when I was an undergraduate just beginning to think seriously about poetry, I met Adrienne Rich. In fact, I picked her up from her hotel and drove her through downtown Boston to the UMass Boston campus for her lecture. It was my mentor and friend Askold Melnyczuk who was coordinating the reading series, and though I’d just met him that semester in his introduction to fiction writing class, he saw in me enough poetic promise to send […]

Categories: Poetry • Tags: adrienne rich, askold melnyczuk, Diving Into The Wreck, essays, feminist, Fox, Martín Espada, poet, poetry, UMass Boston

Anomalous Chapbooks

March 17, 2012 by E. Rowan

Well, our one-year anniversary issue just went live on the Ides. And it’s awesome! Mad Lib poems, non-fiction/poetry, translation and more. And we’re just about to launch our series of chapbooks! So, without further ado, our first ever chapbook contest! ANOMALOUS PRESS ANNOUNCES OUR FIRST-EVER CHAPBOOK CONTEST! March 15 – May 15 $500 prize plus publication! Finalist manuscripts will also be considered for publication, and all submissions will be considered for publication in the journal. $15 fee. We will publish the […]

Categories: Poetry, Publishing, Translation • Tags: Anomalous, Anomalous Press, chapbook, chapbook contest, christian hawkey, literary translation, poetry, translation

Leave a comment

AWP-Wrap

March 4, 2012 by E. Rowan

Well, it has been far far too long. I’ve been buried under my thesis (excerpts of which you can read on Words Without Borders here and here) which is inches away from being announce-ably forthcoming in full. So that’s exciting. I’ve also been printing like a madwoman, making, among other cool things, these sweet postcards for Anomalous Press to hand out at AWP and display on the lovely Iowa Review table. And wow, was AWP crazy this year. I wasn’t initially going […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: Anomalous Press, awp, awp12, awp2012, conference, conference experience, conference tips, letterpress printing, literary translators, poetry, publishing, Words without Borders

Leave a comment

Actually, There are Two "Erica Mena"s

December 31, 2011 by E. Rowan

If you read this blog, or actually know me, you probably don’t know about my secret alter-ego. You see, by day, I’m a grad student, working hard to build a career in academics, teaching, writing, reading, translating, publishing. Oh, really, just buried in poetry in several languages, and that’s just the way I like it. But by night, I’m an ass-model turned actress who lives in L.A. and gets into fistfights with other ass-models on VH1. Be amazed at how […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: @ericamena, @erica_mena, erica mena, fight, Kimbella, Love and Hip Hop, mistaken identity, poetry, VH1

The ignored island(s)

November 28, 2011 by E. Rowan

Puerto Rico has a special place in world literature: none. Or almost none. No one knows how to talk about it. It’s part of the U.S., but predominately Spanish-speaking. It’s part of Latin America, but significantly separate because of the U.S. government and economic control. Puerto Rico has been called “the oldest colony in the world.” And what happens in centuries-old colonies is a kind of hybridity and resistance that makes culture hard to categorize, and therefore harder to talk […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: caribbean literature, caribbean wriitng, Dominican Republic, erica mena, hispanic caribbean, José Mármol, literary translation, poetry, Puerto Rico, translation, Words without Borders

Caribbean Poetry

November 22, 2011 by E. Rowan

Did I fail to mention that the new Words Without Borders (and it’s not so new anymore, but still awesome) features writing from the Caribbean and I have four poems that I translated in it? Oh, Erica… Well, it does, and I’m pretty happy with them. Two by the Dominican poet José Mármol, one by the Dominican poet Aurora Arias, and one by the Puerto Rican poet José María Lima. You can read them here.

Categories: Poetry, Translation • Tags: Aurora Arias, caribbean poetry, erica mena, José María Lima, José Mármol, poetry, translation, Words without Borders

Leave a comment

Nathalie Handal's Poet in Andalucia

October 24, 2011 by E. Rowan

A few weeks ago the exceptional poet Nathalie Handal contacted me about a project of hers, Poet in Andalucía, which is an interesting reversal of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Poet in New York. The book is being translated into Spanish, and she asked me to look over a few of the translations and give some feedback. It was a pleasure to do, and now I’m even more excited about the book. I first met Nathalie Handal in Chile in 2004 during the […]

Categories: Poetry, Translation • Tags: Martín Espada, Nathalie Handal, Poet in Andalucía, poetry, Rattapallax, translation

Leave a comment

Submitting Myself

October 14, 2011 by E. Rowan

Starting last year I began seriously working on my own poetry again, making it a priority. I had an idea, and wanted to see it through the same way I have with my translations. And I’ve been really satisfied with that. So now that it’s been through my editorial-brain wringer a few times, and I’m sure I’m not going to embarrass myself, I’m starting to think about places to send it. And that’s a hard question. I’m thinking about starting […]

Categories: Poetry, Publishing • Tags: journals, literary journals, poetry, publishing, submit, submitting

Leave a comment

Anomalous & Translation at Molossus

October 8, 2011 by E. Rowan

David Shook over at the amazing Molossus interviewed me about Anomalous. It’s here. I’m especially impressed by the range of translations on Anomalous, from Steve Bradbury’s translations of the Taiwanese poet Hsia Yü to Mani Rao’s Śankara. What brings them together? What do you look for when assessing translations? What actually brings them together is me, and another editor Sara Gilmore, who is also a translator. Translators, we’ve found, have to be sought out and luckily we have read and […]

Categories: Publishing • Tags: Anomalous Press, David shook, literary translation, mani rao, molossus, poetry, Steve Bradbury, translation

Leave a comment

Review of False Friends on Iowa Review

August 23, 2011 by E. Rowan

“The project of the book is to toy with language and meaning, with things that sound similar and even the same across languages but mean strange, funny, unusual, and odd things. This is the joy of cognates, as any language learner will tell you—the surprise they can bring to the familiar. By defamiliarizing these phrases, Bernofsky brilliantly constructs an unfamiliar reading experience in English.” Read the rest of my review of False Friends by Uljana Wolf, translated by Susan Bernofsky (Ugly […]

Categories: Poetry, Reviews, Translation • Tags: chapbook, cognates, experimental translation, False Friends, poetry, review, Susan Bernofsky, translation, Ugly Duckling Presse, Uljana Wolf

Leave a comment

E. Rowan Mena

Poet | Book Artist | Translator

Tag: poetry

Remembering Adrienne Rich

Anomalous Chapbooks

AWP-Wrap

Actually, There are Two "Erica Mena"s

The ignored island(s)

Caribbean Poetry

Nathalie Handal's Poet in Andalucia

Submitting Myself

Anomalous & Translation at Molossus

Review of False Friends on Iowa Review