• We, Beasts

We, Beasts

by Oana Avasilichioaei

May 1, 2012 | ISBN 978-1-894987-62-2 | 148 Pages | OUT OF PRINT

**Out of Print**

With undeniable verve, Oana Avasilichioaei upends expectations of literature and poetry in this fascinating collection. We, Beasts is a fairy tale; a book within a book; a collection of verse; a mediation on language, real and imagined and a sly social commentary all in one.

Videos

About the Author

Oana Avasilichioaei is a poet and translator whose work explores history, geography, public space, textual architecture, multilingualism, translation, textual and collaborative performance, and who transformed the landscape of Vancouver’s Hastings Park into an acclaimed book of poems, feria: a poempark (Wolsak & Wynn, 2008). She has translated Nichita Stanescu from Romanian, published as Occupational Sickness (BuschekBooks, 2006), created visual textworks for galleries in Montreal and Vancouver, and has performed her work in Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe. She recently collaborated with Erín Moure on Expeditions of a Chimæra (BookThug, 2009), a dialogic work exploring the boundaries between author/translator and original/copy. The Islands, a translation of Les Îles by Quebecoise poet Louise Cotnoir, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wynn in 2011 and We, Beasts, Avasilichioaei's newest poetry collection, in 2012.

Excerpt

We, Beasts
Read an excerpt from We, Beasts by Oana Avasilichioaei

  • Poets in Profile (Erin Knight, OpenBook:Ontario, 25/04/2012)

    • Watch Oana Avasilichioaei accept her A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry from the Quebec Writers' Federation.
    • POETRY: A dozen of the best published in 2012 (Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg Free Press, 22/12/2012)
      "Avasilichioaei's poems wind around a core of Grimm-esque fable, as she presses words into uncommon functions. In this book's dark core 'the muse, stuck in a bone, is gnawing her way out.'"
    • SPELLES (Oana Avasilichioaei, Bathhouse Vol 8.2, 13/06/2012)
      Click to listen to Oana Avasilichioaei read from "SPELLES" and to check out a sample of the text.
    • Thoughtful Generosity (Duffy Roberts, Canadian Literature, 01/10/2013)
      Duffy Roberts wrote a complex review of Oana Avasilichioaei’s We, Beasts for Canadian Literature
    • Oana Avasilichioaei's beasts (Stephen Collis, Jacket2, 18/07/2012)
      "The wilderness we are returned to here is the one formed by language on the edge of wildernesses long gone—the liminal space of fairy and folk tale, where we stare back at the animals we try to deceive ourselves we no longer are. Voice drifts into voice, language into and out of language."
    • Radical translation of Antigone a lively work (Jonathan Ball, Winnipeg FreePress, 23/06/2012)
      "Her incantatory ‘songs’ and the insertion of a chapbook of ‘spelles’ give a feel of ancient power to the often medieval imagery.”

  • Oana Avasilichioaei is a poet and translator whose work explores history, geography, public space, textual architecture, multilingualism, translation, textual and collaborative performance, and who transformed the landscape of Vancouver’s Hastings Park into an acclaimed book of poems, feria: a poempark (Wolsak & Wynn, 2008). She has translated Nichita Stanescu from Romanian, published as Occupational Sickness (BuschekBooks, 2006), created visual textworks for galleries in Montreal and Vancouver, and has performed her work in Canada, USA, Mexico and Europe. She recently collaborated with Erín Moure on Expeditions of a Chimæra (BookThug, 2009), a dialogic work exploring the boundaries between author/translator and original/copy. The Islands, a translation of Les Îles by Quebecoise poet Louise Cotnoir, is forthcoming from Wolsak and Wynn in 2011 and We, Beasts, Avasilichioaei's newest poetry collection, in 2012.