Johnson, Kent & Echavarren, Roberto (eds.): Hotel Lautréamont

Shearsman Books, paperback

Edited by Kent Johnson, Roberto Echavarren

Publication Date: October 14, 2011

Publisher Marketing:

Named in homage to Isidore Ducasse, the Uruguayan-French poet who wrote Maldoror under the name Comte de Lautréamont, and with a knowing nod to John Ashbery's book of the same title, this is the first major English-language survey of contemporary Uruguayan poetry for some 40 years, and features the work of Roberto Appratto, Nancy Bacelo, Amanda Berenguer, Selva Casal, Marosa Di Giorgio, Roberto Echavarren, Eduardo Espina, Gustavo Espinosa, Silvia Guerra, Circe Maia, Eduardo Milán and Idea Vilariño.

Kent Johnson grew up in Uruguay and worked during the 1980s as a literacy teacher in rural regions of Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution. He is author, editor, or translator of twenty-some books and chapbooks, including three collections of poetry recently published abroad in translation. Translated into a dozen languages and appearing in more than twenty countries, his work has been selected for awards from Pushcart, the Illinois Arts Council, PEN, and The National Endowment for the Arts. In 2004, he was named State Teacher of the Year by the Illinois Community College Board. He lives in Freeport, Illinois.

Roberto Echavarren is a Uruguayan poet, novelist and essayist. In 2009, he won the Nancy Bacelo Prize, and in 2007, he won the Ministry of Culture Prize, both for poetry. He has translated works by Friedrich Nietzsche, William Shakespeare, John Ashbery, Wallace Stevens, Marina Tsvet ieva, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Haroldo de Campos, among others.