Anne Carson Wins Prince Asturias Award

Hello Gentle Reader

Anne Carson is a giant of intellectual superiority in the literary world; while remaining one of its best kept secrets. Those who know of Anne Carson often refer to her with cultish allure and air. As if she is an esoteric oracle, beckoning forth the ancient and the present. With a strong scholarly background in Classical Studies, as well as a keen and unique eye for poetry and essay; and then combining all three, she certainly meets the otherwise otherworldly ethereal image conjured by critics and readers. Her experimental form, and hybrid pastiches have often caused the ire of other poets, proclaiming that Anne Carson is not a poet—they didn’t know what she was in lieu of—but she was not a poet. Despite their adamant protests, she became critically recognized and categorized as a poet. Perhaps because what else could she be? Her works are not fiction. They are preoccupied with the nebulous and spectral land of emotion, fragmented thought, and experience.  They are not essaying either, they reject the notion of prose. All the while they appear more concrete, more engaged then poetry is supposed to be. All the while, Anne Carson rejects the poet’s indecisive nature, and maintains continued unity through each of her collections continually exploring her intellectual curiosity, while rejecting poetries general preoccupations and confines. Therefore, Anne Carson is referred to as one of the most imaginative poets of the late Twentieth Century and Twenty First Century. The jury of the Price Asturias Award praised Anne Carson for her intellectual solvency, her dedication to keeping the classics alive, and her resolve in continually securing humanities as not an outdated study, but a perspective and lens in which to review and reflect on the modern and times.  Praise should be given to Anne Carson’s dedication to her fluid and malleable form. One that defies poetry and essay, but maintains the emotional resonance of one, and the intellectual dedication of the other.

Congratulations Anne Carson, the award is well deserved!

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary

Jerzy Pilch Dies Aged 67

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Jerzy Pilch was one of Poland’s most intellectually fierce writers, and perhaps one of its most noted satirists. His literary career begun in the depths of Poland’s Soviet past. In the late seventies and early eighties, Pilch made a name for himself through the underground literary machine, by writing and reciting his satirical essays, during Poland’s martial law phase. The essay was Pilch’s first literary endeavor. Those scathing, sardonic, and satirical articles, zinged across Poland after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and appeared routinely in newspapers; after which they were collected and published in book format. In the nineties, Pilch turned his literary interests to grander prose and fiction, producing novels throughout the last decade of the Twentieth Century and into the Twenty-First Century. His novels: “My First Suicide,” “A Thousand Peaceful Cities,” and “The Mighty Angel,”—carried the same sense of the ironic, absurd, and fermented satire, which had previously gathered him praised in the past with his essays and reoccurring newspaper columns. The Polish public admired the fierce brand of literary humour that Pilch was more then happy to provide; perhaps proving the notion or at least conventional understanding that in Poland high literary pursuits does not equate antiquated boorish snobbery, but rather an enjoyable expedition into the philosophical conundrums of the human experience, rendered with ironic precision, deceitful simplicity, and understated understanding of the contradictions and paradoxes.

Jerzy Pilch, died in late May from complications of Parkinson’s.

Rest in Peace Jerzy Pilch.

Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader

Take Care

And As Always

Stay Well Read

M. Mary