Copper Canyon, Apr. 2008. translated. from Belarusian by Elizabeth Wright & Franz Wright.
ISBN 978-1-55659-274-4. pap. $15
Celebrated in Europe for her dynamic performances, Mort, a 26-year-old Belarusian poet, is a fireball, and her American debut collection, nothing short of phenomenal.
This bilingual publication, cotranslated by the husband-and-wife team of Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright, features 36 works, including the blistering prose piece White Trash, Polish Immigrants, and Belarusian II Mort's vision is visceral, wistful, bittersweet, and dark. In Music of Locusts, the narrator laments, "Everything belongs to me but hope" while "the whole colorful universe/ appears like the deep/ hole in the sink" in Hospital Mort takes an unflinching look at a violent world, referencing homeless dogs, dead men, terrorist attacks in Chechnya, stinging memories, bloody bodies, and forced silence. Personal, political, and passionate, Mort's poetry will surely sustain many reading audiences. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.- Miriam Tuliao, NYPL.
Editor's note: The Spring issue of Poets and Writers features her picture on the cover, together with an extensive interview.
This article appeared in
Belarusian Review, Vol. 20, No.1
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Copyright 2008 Belarusian Review
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2 may 2008
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