Paper-Thin Skin

Aigerim Tazhi author J Kates translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Zephyr Press

Published:4th Jul '19

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Paper-Thin Skin cover

Paper-thin Skin is the debut collection by Aigerim Tazhi, who has broken ground as a Kazakhstani woman poet by gaining attention both in Russia and internationally. Fish, insects, birds, the sea, the sky, humans seeking connection, and death figure frequently in these succinct poems, as do windows, mirrors, and eyes: these are poems of observation and deep reflection. Tazhi gently insists that we look at words and the world “in the eye,” as she seeks to create what translator J. Kates calls a “mystic community of communication.”

”For a debut poetry collection, Aigerim Tazhi’s Paper-Thin Skin is a work of stunning originality.“ — Elmira Elvazova, Massachusetts Review

 

“ This is a beautifully translated volume that neither exoticizes nor renders out the joy of reading poetry grounded in another place and language.” — Alison Mandaville, World Literature Today


“…[Tazhi's] poetry is enjoyable for the pure inventiveness of her images and observations. The collection is riddled with vivid, often intriguing images and witty one liners.” — Belinda Cooke, Poetry Salzburg Review


"Nevertheless, Central Asian literature in English translation remains rare and since Tazhi’s current home of Almaty is equidistant between the capitals of Russia and China, a leading Kazakh poet, for such Tazhi evidently is, deserves to be read as much to her East as to her West. — Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books


"A beautiful bilingual book, produced with care and attention to white space around the poems, Paper-Thin Skin speaks to layers of loss–from personal and private to the loss of the country (I read these poems in the post-Soviet context) to climate change and the loss of habitats." — Olga Zilberbourg, Punctured Lines

ISBN: 9781938890901

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

160 pages