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A poetic pilgrimage through Latin America
LEO BOIX talks to Richard Gwyn about Latin American poetry, translation and enduring literary friendships
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“WHEN I was 15, I read all of Che Guevara’s works,” says Richard Gwyn. “So, when I went to university, I was particularly interested in the anthropology of certain Latin American communities… There was a mix of different influences. Discovering Gabriel Garcia Marquez, of course, and Jorge Luis Borges… These things all contributed to a kind of fascination, which was slightly dreamy, based on ideas I didn't fully comprehend.”
That’s how Gwyn began his interest in Latin America as a student, leading him many years later to travel to that vast region in search of poets for a landmark anthology.
A first visit to the International Poetry Festival in Granada, Nicaragua, convinced him of the need to produce an anthology of recent poetry from Latin America, which eventually became The Other Tiger (Seren, 2016).
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LEO BOIX selects the best books of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction written by Latinx and Latin American authors published this year
Mexican Yuri Herrera’s novel about Benito Juarez in New Orleans, and poetry by Mexican Fabio Morabito and Argentine Sergio Chejfec
LEO BOIX reviews a noir novel featuring flies, a fumigation company and two female ex-convicts by Argentinian Claudia Pineiro, an anthology by contemporary Latin American writers and collections of poetry by Chilean Gabriela Mistral and Puerto Rican Irizelma Robles
Femicide and the search for justice in Mexico: a book by Cristina Rivera Garza; and a travel book through Latin America by Welsh poet Richard Gwyn