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Inspired by life itself
Poet EDUARDO EMBRY talks to Michal Boncza about the influences on his work — exile in Britain after the murderous Pinochet coup, the satire in his new anthology Dead Flies and the current rebellion in his native Chile
Eduardo Embry

BEING forced to leave your country of origin inevitably induces all manner of trauma, and Eduardo Embry believes that exile, ever since ancient times, is the most serious thing a human being can face.

In his case, having received threats and in danger of arrest, torture and death, exile was “a life or death situation,” he remembers. “It was the fate of hundreds of comrades, who were executed.”

When he arrived in London in 1974, Embry began the process of recovering from the multiple traumas — particularly torture — a process in which he was guided by psychologist and comrade Alejandro Reyes.

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