Mari Jose Olaziregi – författare

Arc New Voices from Europe and Beyond: 2Six Basque Poets is the second volume in a new series of bilingual anthologies which brings the work of contemporary poets from Europe and beyond to a wider English-language readership, a series which aims to keep a finger on the 'here and now' of international contemporary poetry.The six poets included in this collection have played a defining role in the development of Basque-language poetry in the last thirty years, since the arrival of what we have come to refer to as the 'democratic age' in Spain and the Basque Country. They represent the diversity of voices and poetic schools that populate the contemporary Basque literary scene, where a variety of tendencies has emerged in the recent decades: a range of different poetics, use of various narrative styles, a preference for a non-aesthetic approach that dwells within the quotidian and an emergence of female voices that reclaim other codes and other universes.Direct, moving and thought-provoking, the poetry in the present volume gives us insight into the preoccupations of a literary milieu which may be marginalized by its use of an ancient language not spoken outside its territory but which is as powerful and original in its production as any of the literary centres in today's Europe.The featured poets: Rikardo Arregi, Bernardo Atxaga, Felipe Juaristi, Miren Agur Meabe, Kirmen Uribe, Joseba Sarrionandia.

A compilation of short stories from fourteen contemporary Basque writers, this work provides a unique insight into Basque society and literature. It includes stories by Bernardo Atxaga, Lourdes Onederra, and Iban Zaldua, among others."Literature often flourishes like certain kinds of plants, between the cracks in walls that gardeners have forgotten to tend. It can spring from the oppressed, impoverished, ignored. An Anthology of Basque Short Stories . . . affords a glimpse of one such obscure and interesting literature. . . . Curiously, all these stories explore loneliness. There is no indication that this similarity is intentional. Is it a revelation about the lives of contemporary Europeans? These 14 stories offer readers a treat from writers who speak a strange but beautifully expressive language."Mark Kurlansky, Author of The Basque History of the World