Selected Poems (1990-2020)

by Gïzim Hajdari, Sarah Stickney (Translator)

Overview

"Gëzim Hajdari's generous literary, scholarly, and editorial work extends across different countries and languages. Resistance, commitment, social justice, freedom, courage, and solidarity are at the centre of his research. In his own words, 'Good poetry is an act of life and of ethics. A great life means great poetry.' An already established poet in Albania, after moving to Italy, the author went through a patient, painful, and empowering reconstruction of his unique poetic voice, which has since developed as translingual Albanian-Italian.

This edition represents the first English translation of Hajdari's Poesie scelte, masterfully carried out by Sarah Stickney, who reconstructs the sense of subjectivity and history that is foundational to Hajdari's poetic career. This book as such presents Anglophone readerships not only with a masterpiece of translingual poetry but also with what I have previously defined as Hajdari's first self-anthology, that is, a retrospective collection and reorganisation-constructed by the author himself-of a substantial part of his published poetic work, here meticulously re-read and re-interpreted.'' -Alice Loda

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848619616
Publisher:	Shearsman Books
Publication date:	01/17/2025
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Gëzim Hajdari was born in 1957 in Lushnje, Albania. As well as working in a variety of jobs, he was intensely involved in journalism and political activism in his native country. In 1992 he fled to Italy. He initially occupied the ruins of an abandoned building in Frosinone near Rome, but was awarded an apartment by the town council after he won the prestigious Eugenio Montale Prize. He writes in both Albanian and Italian, but is perhaps more recognised in his adopted country. His books include collections of essays and travel writing, as well as several volumes of poetry, which have been translated into several languages. He has two previous volumes in English, both from Shearsman Books.

Sarah Stickney grew up in Santa Fe, NM, where she now lives. She has taught at St. John's College (Santa Fe, NM, & Annapolis, MD) since 2013. She taught at Deep Springs College, CA, where she helped to make the school co-educational after one hundred years of all-male education, and served as Dean for two years. Her co-translations of Elisa Biagini's selected poems, 'The Guest in the Wood', won the Best Translated Book Award for poetry in 2014, and a more complete collection of Biagini's translated work 'To the Teeth' was published in September 2021. She received a Fulbright grant for the translation of Albanian/Italian poet Gëzim Hajdari's work in 2010 and has worked with him for over a decade, translating selections from all his major works. She has published translations of the poetry of Vivian Lamarque in literary journals and magazines including Transom, Two Lines, and elsewhere.