About the Book
In This Is Us Losing Count, eight contemporary Russian poets obliterate old conventions in their efforts to reckon with the past.
A woman surveys a changing city from her self-described "cloud tower," recalling where building used to stand. A grandmother spends her hallucinatory final days convening with deceased friends and relatives visible only to her, including a small boy perched on top of the refrigerator. A voracious eater picks through memories in the form of breads, dumplings, sweets, and other snacks that never quite sate her, declaring "I write because I can't eat enough." In sinuous translations of verse both irreverent and profound, this fifth installment of Two Lines Press's Calico Series ask to what extent we must remember in order to reinvent.
Review :
"Despite the remarkably distinct stylings of the eight individual poets, the collection carries a level of cohesiveness and unity that is rarely found in even the most meticulously designed novels. Made even more impressive by the seamless work of seven talented translators (the original Russian remains on the pages, adjacent to the English translations), This Is Us Losing Count is for anyone interested poetry, dreams and memories." --Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"Stunning...a fascinating glimpse into modern Russian poetry that leaves me longing for more." --Book Riot
"The poems in this volume are bold and forthright yet bracingly controlled, vivid in their imagery and visionary in their imaginative reach. Taken together, they testify to a new efflorescence of Russian poetry--a blossoming that was seasons in the the making, like the January flowers in one of Alla Gorbunova's lyrics, translated by Elina Alter: 'white at first glance, but then / a thousandfold colors.'" --Boris Dralyuk, author of My Hollywood and Other Poems and Editor-in-Chier of Los Angeles Review of Books
Praise for the Calico Series
"This eclectic bilingual anthology from queer Brazilian writers, both living and dead, is as expansive and full of life as the country itself...enticing and poignant." --Publishers Weekly, on Cuíer
"A concise and enlightening overview of the last fifty years of LGBTQ literature from South America's largest country. Spanning Brazil's regional boundaries and including legends such as Ana Cristina Cesar, Caio Fernando Abreu, and Wilson Bueno, as well as newer voices such as Marcio Junqueira, Cristina Judar, and Angélica Freitas among many others, Cuíer is nothing less than divine!" --John Keene, author of Counternarratives, on Cuíer
"A fantastic and deeply philosophical addition to Two Lines' Calico series of collected works in translation." --Booklist, on Elemental
"[Elemental's] mission is to show, by removing these texts from their natural habitats and plonking them on a stage devoid of context with no illumination but the harsh gaze of the quizzical reader, just how good translations can be. And I'm very pleased to report that the exercise is remarkably successful." --Kit Maude, Akimbo Books, on Elemental
"Stone, earth, water, ice, wind, and burning heat. The stories here dig deep and unexpectedly into life's fundamentals--the elements and the passions--bringing into English, many for the first time, writers of stature from across the globe. A celebration of both storytelling and translation, Elemental is essential, a gift that opens up the pleasures of new worlds." --Hugh Raffles, author of The Book of Unconformities, on Elemental
"Marvelous...a credit to the art of both poets and translators." --Cynthia Hogue, author of In June the Labyrinth and co-translator of Joan Darc, by Nathalie Quintane, on Home
"Unbelievably exciting...These are poems to read and reread, repeating the lines as though they were a secret between yourself and the page." --The Paris Review, on Home
"The poems in this anthology abound with vivid imagery and moving remembrances of the past. They're also a powerful demonstration of how, using only a handful of words, a poet can create an entire world--as Mohamad Nassereddine does in 'The Mechanic's Heresy.' Observe: 'When the mechanic in blue / stares up at the sky, / for a minute, he thinks himself God.' Haunting and resonant throughout." --Words Without Borders, on Home
"This remarkable anthology of Chinese speculative fiction offers seven tales of societal responsibility and individual freedom. . . . By turns cryptic and revealing, phantasmagorical and straightforward, these tales balance reality and fantasy on the edge of a knife."--Publishers Weekly, starred review of That We May Live
"With enthralling and precise language, this first book in Two Lines Press' Calico series of collected translated literature impresses...This collection of speculative Chinese fiction is compelling and provocative, exploring the thin line between reality and absurdity. " --Booklist, starred review of That We May Live
