I Am My Own Path
Selected Writings of Julia de Burgos
Format:Hardback
Publisher:University of Texas Press
Publishing:25th Feb '25
£103.00
This title is due to be published on 25th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
A definitive, bilingual selection of poetry, essays, and letters by one of Puerto Rico’s most beloved poets.
Julia de Burgos (1914–1953) is best known for her poetry, but she is also an important cultural figure famous for her commitment to social justice, feminist ideas, and the independence of Puerto Rico. Admirers cultivated her legacy to bring to light the real Julia de Burgos, the woman behind the public figure, which this remarkable collection further illuminates by supplying a complex portrait using her own powerful and imaginative words.
Beginning with a critical introduction to Burgos's life and work, Vanessa Pérez-Rosario then presents a selection of poems, essays, and letters, that offer a glimpse into this formidable talent and intellect. Burgos left Puerto Rico, spending the 1940s in both New York City and Havana, where she cultivated a new kind of identity refracted through her pathbreaking work as a poet and journalist. Both poetry and prose are alive with politically charged insights into the struggle of national liberation, literary creation, and being a woman in a patriarchal society. I Am My Own Path is essential reading for anyone interested in Puerto Rican literature and culture as well as a foundational text of Latinx literature and culture in the United States.
How grateful I am that nuestra Julia de Burgos, writer, feminist, social activist, can now become more fully accessible to monolingual English readers. With this comprehensive critical introduction to her life and work, nuestra Julia becomes a Julia for all of America. A treasure trove for those who did not know of her work or want to know more. -- Julia Alvarez, author of The Cemetery of Untold Stories
Everyone should rush out immediately and get a copy of this dazzling, monumental translation of Julia de Burgos’s extraordinary writing. The work of de Burgos is graced by a strikingly brilliant rendering by some of today’s most inspired and inspiring literary translators, many of whom are themselves celebrated writers. I Am My Own Path is a treasure trove, a lighthouse, and essential reading for anyone interested in poetry, poetics, Puerto Rican letters, or the literature of the Americas. This vital volume is a historical event not to be missed! -- Rachel Galvin, author of Uterotopia: Poems
This collection, which further establishes Julia de Burgos’s importance and gives her work new expression in English, is orchestrated by a scholar who knows de Burgos and her work better than anyone else: Vanessa Pérez-Rosario. She has assembled an all-star lineup of influential poets and scholars to help translate de Burgos’s writing for a multilingual readership. Period translations from decades back are complemented by new ones from a stellar array of emerging and established contemporary literary figures. The deft, top-notch curation of this book makes it a powerful tool for expanding our understanding of de Burgos’s work. -- Esther Allen, translator of The Suicides by Antonio Di Benedetto
ISBN: 9781477327906
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 454g
440 pages