Vesuvius
Hugh Hazelton
June 2015
128 pages | ISBN 978-1-894987-81-3
Zulmira Ribeiro Tavares is the author of numerous works of poetry and fiction, and has received many of Brazil’s highest literary awards. This collection, translated by Governor General’s Award–winning translator Hugh Hazelton, is the first English translation of her poetry. Vesuvius is divided into seven parts that converge into a final glosa, which serves as a guide to the mountain. Tavares’ poetry is direct, but sly, filled with pointed commentary on the world around her. In her writing a socialite can be a boa constrictor, and a volcano can be a country. She questions everything, but the reader follows her willingly, charmed by her disarming style and captivated by her insight.
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About the Author
Hugh Hazelton is a writer and translator who specializes in the work of Latin American writers living in Canada, as well as in comparisons between Canadian and Quebec literatures and those of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). He has published four books of poetry and has translated eleven books from Spanish and French into English. His translation of Vétiver (Signature, 2005), a collection of poems by the Haitian-Canadian writer Joël Des Rosiers, won the Governor General's award for French-English translation in 2006. He teaches Spanish translation and Latin American civilization at Concordia University in Montreal.
Born in 1930, in São Paulo, Brazil, Zulmira Ribeiro Tavares is the author of numerous books, including Termos de comparação (Perspectiva, 1974); O japonês dos olhos redondos (Paz e Terra, 1982); O nome do bispo (Brasiliense, 1985); O mandril (Brasiliense, 1988) and Joias de família (1990). She has received numerous awards including the 1974 Award for Literature by APCA, the Mercedes Benz Award for Literature in 1985 and a Jabuti Award for Fiction in 1991.
