It Must Be a Misunderstanding: New and Selected Poems

Shortlisted for the Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation 2024.  Shortlisted for the Premio Valle Inclán Prize 2023.  Mexican poet, teacher and translator Coral Bracho was born in Mexico City in 1951. She has published several books, two in English thanks to the brilliant poet-translator Forrest Gander, who has put this composite volume together, the first time Bracho has been extensively published in the UK. An extensive selection from Bracho's earlier work, which 'altered the landscape of Mexican poetry' (World Literature Today), is accompanied by the entirety of her new book, of which Gander writes: 'Although composed of individual poems, It Must Be a Misunderstanding is really a deeply affecting book-length work whose force builds as the poems cycle through their sequences. The “plot” follows a general trajectory—from early to late Alzheimer's—with non-judgmental affection and compassionate watchfulness. We come to know an opinionated, demonstrative elderly woman whose resilience, in the face of her dehiscent memory, becomes most clear in her adaptive strategies. The poems involve us in the mind's bafflement and wonder, in its creative quick-change adjustments, and in the emotional drama that draws us across the widening linguistic gaps that reroute communication. Bracho's poems have philosophical and psychological underpinnings even when they are descriptive. Her work has always managed to mix abstraction and sensuality, but in this book the two merge into a particularly resonant combination. 'We are inside a mind, maybe many minds, considering a mystery with signal attentiveness, openness, and love.' 

About the Author :
Mexican poet and translator Coral Bracho was born in Mexico City, where she still lives and teaches. She is the author of several collections of poetry, including Ese espacio, ese jardin (2003) which won the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize. Her poetry was translated for the Poetry Translation Center's 2005 World Poets' Tour by Tom Boll and poet Katherine Pierpoint. Bracho's honors include the Aguacalientes National Poetry Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship.;Forrest Gander, a writer and translator with degrees in geology and literature, was born in the Mojave Desert and lives in California. Gander is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize and the Best Translated Book Award. His many translations include Then Come Back: the Lost Neruda Poems, Alice, Iris, Red Horse: Selected Poems of Gozo Yoshimasu, and Firefly Under the Tongue: Poems by Coral Bracho.

Review :
'Elegantly translated...Bracho never sentimentalises or reverts to memory loss clichss. Instead, she builds on meaning and emotions through an observant use of irony, and psychological and philosophical insight, sometimes even dark humour, in order to excavate family drama with generosity, love, and understanding. This is an essential collection from one of the most insightful poets writing today in Mexico.' Leo Boix, Poetry London 'Elegantly translated...Bracho never sentimentalises or reverts to memory loss clichss. Instead, she builds on meaning and emotions through an observant use of irony, and psychological and philosophical insight, sometimes even dark humour, in order to excavate family drama with generosity, love, and understanding. This is an essential collection from one of the most insightful poets writing today in Mexico.' Leo Boix, Poetry London 'Beautifully translated by Forrest Gander... Bracho's consistently unusual images are profoundly illuminating, and her especial gift is to bend them to make us think. She can be both metaphysical and full of human emotion - often, the two at once.' Fiona Sampson, The Guardian