Hello
Gentle Reader
During
the past week, one can be forgiven for not hearing or knowing the news that Valeria
Luiselli had won the Rathbones Folio Prize. In the influx of media surrounding the
pandemic and repeated requests for people to observe and respect calls for
social distancing (now being refered to as: physical distancing), one may have
missed the news Monday that Valeria Luiselli won this year’s Rathbones Folio
Prize, for her novel: “Lost Children Archive.” In winning the Folio Prize, Luiselli
becomes the first woman and the first Mexican author to receive the award (it
should be noted “Lost Children Archive is Valeria Luiselli’s first novel
written in English). Considering the female dominated shortlist, the
probability of seeing a woman writer taking the prize for the first time was inevitable.
Valeria Luiselli winning the award, however, was a surprise. The shortlist was
dominated by powerful testimonials, essays, poetry and prose.
The
shortlist had numerous interesting writers in its midst. The two most prominent
being: the poet, Fiona Benson with her collection: “Vertigo & Ghost,” and:
Sinead Gleeson with her debut essay collection, “Constellations.” Since her
debut as a poet, Fiona Benson has carved herself a quiet but simmering
reputation as a serious and somber poetic voice in contemporary English
literature. Her poetry is raw and unapologetic as it dredges through the
trenches of the female experience, violence, subjugation, and trauma. Her poetic
language is descriptive, explosive, and unflinching in otherwise visceral depictions
of feminine experiences. “Vertigo & Ghost,” is of no exception. Through the
remodeling of mythology, Fiona Benson wrote about rape, before writing about
childhood, and motherhood, which created an otherwise cycle like narrative of
the feminine experience between the horrors of the external thrust upon them,
and the beauty of choice and what cane spring from that wellspring of womb of
life, followed by the eternity of nurturing and rearing thereafter.
Sinead
Gleeson on the other hand renews the essay; proving that the form is not just
academic, dusty or dry, but a teeming form full of life, and often grappling
with the immediate and apparent reality, with more candor then any novel, short
story, or poem would dare address. In her debut essay collection “Constellations,”
Sinead Gleeson crawls beneath the skin, and gets straight to heart of the
matter. The heart in this case and the matter are personal in nature: Sinead
Gleeson herself. The subtext of “Constellations,” is: “Reflections of Life,”
and Sinead Gleeson has lived a life marred by illness and physical torment,
which she aptly documents and records in her essays. Gleeson shies away from
autobiography, which in such matters would be too linear. The essay on the
other hand can be more fluid, and no punctuated on the demands of time. In this
Gleeson is able to be as fragmentary as necessary, and as epiphanic as she
pleases, all the while opting for formal experimentation as she desires.
Despite
my desire to see either Fiona Benson receive the award or Sinead Gleeson, it
went to Valeria Luiselli, who over the past few years has made a remarkable
name for herself as a rising ‘global writer,’ who can move between languages
and cultures with ease, and readily shown in her novel “Lost Children Archive,”
though written in English, maintains a preoccupation with the Mexican plight
and American politics, in a growing xenophobic and disenfranchised world.
Congratulations
of course are in order to Valeria Luiselli! Though the times could not be more unfortunate
for such events, as all social gatherings, convocations, and events are postponed
until further notice.
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary
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