Theophylline
A Poetic Migration via the Modernisms of Rukeyser, Bishop, Grimké (de Castro, Vallejo)
What is breath for? What is archive? Why write a poem, instead of... something else?
Theophylline is a work of poetry motivated by asthma, seeking poetry’s futurity in a queer and female heritage. Moure crosses a border to engage the poetry of three American modernists—Muriel Rukeyser, Elizabeth Bishop, and Angelina Weld Grimké—as a translator might enter work to translate it. But what if that work is already in English?
I looked for women who had made and were formed by
migrations, and who were in some way marked ‘qustionably’
by the socius, and I examined what I could of the forms and
shapes of their migrations—
What is breath for? What is archive? Why write a poem, instead of... something else?
Theophylline is a work of poetry motivated by asthma, seeking poetry’s futurity in a queer and female heritage. Moure crosses a border to engage the poetry of three American modernists—Muriel Rukeyser, Elizabeth Bishop, and Angelina Weld Grimké—as a translator might enter work to translate it. But what if that work is already in English?
I looked for women who had made and were formed by
migrations, and who were in some way marked ‘qustionably’
by the socius, and I examined what I could of the forms and
shapes of their migrations—
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Aug 8, 2023 |
| Specifications | 176 pages | 6 in x 9 in |
| Keywords | chronic illness; covid; air quality; global warming; environmentalism; feminism; canadian literature; canadian poetry; books in translation; |
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Supporting Resources
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
ERÍN MOURE is a poet and translator (primarily of Galician and French poetry into English) who welcomes texts that are unconventional or difficult because she loves and needs them. Among other honours, she is a two-time winner of Canada’s Governor General’s Award (in poetry and translation), a winner of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Nelson Ball Prize, a co-recipient of the QWF Spoken Word Prize, a three-time finalist for a Best Translated Book Award in poetry, and a three-time finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. |
| Written By |
ELISA SAMPEDRÍN is undependable. Her presence, like that of the shoe, worries the book. |
| Written By |
|
ERÍN MOURE is a poet and translator (primarily of Galician and French poetry into English) who welcomes texts that are unconventional or difficult because she loves and needs them. Among other honours, she is a two-time winner of Canada’s Governor General’s Award (in poetry and translation), a winner of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Nelson Ball Prize, a co-recipient of the QWF Spoken Word Prize, a three-time finalist for a Best Translated Book Award in poetry, and a three-time finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. |
| Written By |
|
ELISA SAMPEDRÍN is undependable. Her presence, like that of the shoe, worries the book. |
A triumphant work of essai-poetry … Moure’s theorized queer poetics of disability is convincing and compelling, and the studied elements of translation and fragmentation elevate the book to a unique project.
” —Montreal Review of BooksIn Theophylline, the poet’s interaction with Rukeyser, Bishop, and Grimké is itself a translation ... Moure works to sensitively resuscitate erased histories.
” —Poetry FoundationGenerous in its generation of shared meaning and multiple voices … Theophylline breathes on and through each turning page, as it migrates across multiple thresholds. As [Moure] fits herself into the shoes of others and otherness, she walks the walk and talks the talk of postmodern poetry and translation.”
” —Miramichi Reader