Galician Poets in English

This week sees the publication in English of two books of Galician poetry. Shearsman Books publishes a third title by Chus Pato in Erín Moure's translation, Hordes of Writing, while Small Stations Press publishes the Collected Poems of Lois Pereiro (the subject of this year's Galician Literature Day on 17 May) in Jonathan Dunne's translation.


These two publications take the number of books of Galician literature published in English translation to 42. This list includes nineteen poetry titles and three mixed anthologies (poetry and prose). In December 2010, Poetry Review, the magazine of the Poetry Society, published a selection of Contemporary Galician Poets, which can be downloaded for free.

m-Talá published in English

Spring is in the air and, with it, the second book of Galician poetry published in English this month! Following the publication of From Unknown to Unknown by Manuel Rivas, Shearsman Books in the southwest of England today bring out Chus Pato’s seminal work m-Talá in Erín Moure’s translation, published simultaneously by BuschekBooks in Canada. Shearsman Books brought out the later title Charenton in 2007.

Helena González defines m-Talá on the publisher’s website as ‘a model for all Galician poetry’. ‘The poetics of chaos is an inalienable characteristic of the work of Chus Pato. But in m-Talá she wipes out the borders of literary conventions. The multiple discourses and languages around us erupt into, and construct, the poem. Reading this book is a challenge and play from which humour is never far.’

Erín Moure is the accomplished translator and a poet in her own right with a dozen books of poetry. There will be an interview with her next month on this blog.

You will find a full list of books of Galician literature published in English here.