By Julia Snyder, junior English major
LATROBE, PA – Eulalia Books, a poetry-in-translation publisher housed at Saint Vincent College, will launch “Night in the North,” written by Fabían Severo and translated from Portuñol by Laura Cesarco Eglin and Jesse Lee Kercheval, at the Association of Writers and Writing Program (AWP) conference in San Antonio, Texas, March 4-7.
Michelle Gil-Montero, Saint Vincent College associate professor of English and publisher of Eulalia Books, will attend the conference along with Saint Vincent College graduates Bridget Fertal, C’19, and Tyler Friend, C’14. Fertal is managing editor for Eulalia Books, while Friend is the designer for the press. Eulalia Books will have its own table at AWP for the first time this year.
“AWP is the largest coming together of writers and publishers in the U.S.,” said Gil-Montero. “Often, there is a rush in small press poetry to launch books before the conference for the visibility it affords and the opportunity to sell.”
More than 12,000 attendees and 800 publishers, journals and literary organizations attend the AWP conference each year, according to the organization’s website.
“Night in the North” is an autobiographical long poem that chronicles Severo’s experience growing up in Artigas, Uruguay, a linguistic and cultural borderland nestled between Argentina and Brazil. In a series of stark scenes, he revisits moments from his childhood, sketching a rare map of the subtle, yet violent, mechanisms that marginalize culturally specific communities. Poems from “Night in the North” have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry magazine and Asymptote Journal.
Poet Laura Shapiro, author of “Easy Math,” wrote, “I am in awe of the tender intimacy Severo captures between people living through and into poverty and hardship in the small tokens that illuminate both sorrow and richness. In sharp and precise language, Laura Cesarco Eglin and Jesse Lee Kercheval bring a much-needed voice into American literature.”
Eulalia Books is a part of Saint Vincent College’s literary translation program, a conjunctive effort of the English and modern language departments. Its mission is to publish modern and contemporary poets who do not yet have a collection translated into English.
The book trailer for "Night in the North" can be viewed on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJReFnZ-PjU.
To learn more about upcoming Eulalia Books publications, events and more, visit its website at www.eulaliabooks.com, follow on Instagram and Twitter (both @Eulalia_Books) and “like’ on Facebook at Eulalia Books.
---
FOLLOW SAINT VINCENT COLLEGE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter:@MySaintVincent
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/saintvincentcollege
Instagram:@SaintVincentCollege
YouTube:Saint Vincent College
Snapchat: mysaintvincent