We were thrilled to see this comment sent in from one of our book club members during the vote:
Very interesting choices, there are three books I would be happy to read. Such a pity Paraguayan authors are not being translated into other languages! Let's just hope this changes in the near future. It has encouraged me to seek out more info on Paraguayan new authors and see if I can volunteer to translate one of their stories into English so that they can be read abroad.
We wish you the best of luck with this as we definitely need to see more Paraguayn books translated & we know of one translator who got her start into translating simply because she too saw a need.
Though there wasn’t as much of a choice this month, we’re very pleased with the results of the vote since our club often reads fiction or memoirs. So the pick this month is a unique one for us & also provides some background about Paraguay as well which is bound to be interesting. We hope you join us in this read especially since more people reading Paraguayan books will show libraries, Amazon, & book shops that there is a need for these books to be translated.
BUT WHAT BOOK DID THE GROUP PICK TO READ NEXT?
Exotic Territory seeks to address a dearth of information in the English-speaking world about Paraguayan poetry. The twelve outstanding poets included here—José Luis Appleyard, Moncho Azuaga, Gladys Carmagnola, Susy Delgado, Oscar Ferreiro, Renée Ferrer, Joaquín Morales, Amanda Pedrozo, Jacobo Rauskin, Elvio Romero, Ricardo de La Vega, Carlos Villagra Marsal—represent a wide diversity of themes, styles, and perspectives in this little-known nation.
The majority of these poets have published extensively, have been recognized through literary awards and inclusion in national/international anthologies, and continue writing today.
To contextualize the poets and their poetry for readers unfamiliar with Paraguay, the introduction provides a brief background of its geography, history, government, economy, society, and artistic milieu. Following that is a wide selection of representative poems published previously in Spanish, with translations in English on facing pages. The book concludes with a brief biographical sketch of each poet, followed by an unprecedented and extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources intended to encourage those readers who might want to pursue further reading or research on any poet of interest.
(A special thank you to book club member, Beth Cummings for the suggestion.)