Elvira Hernández (1951-) is one of the most interesting and innovative Latin American poets writing today. This critical edition is the first of its kind in English, collecting Hernández’s works from 1981 to the present day. Beyond The Chilean Flag provides an indispensable insight into Chilean recent history, from The Chilean Flag, a book written and secretly distributed during Pinochet’s dictatorship, to her role as an artist and activist in the social turmoil of 2019, along with artifacts such as Cartas al azar (1989) and other scattered poems. Alongside the English translations of Hernández’s poetry, this edition includes six compelling scholarly essays by eminent scholars and poets, offering new understandings of Hernández’s work, including her relationship with the Chilean neo-avant-garde, how she pushed the limits of linguistic expression under dictatorship, her latest critical approach to the ecological crisis, and more, in order to consider Hernández’s writing from a contemporary expanded context.
