Tina Escaja
Poet Tina Escaja joined us in the studio on Feb. 11 to read and discuss her poetry and her poetic preoccupations: women, Spain, American politics and so much more. She is joined by her friend, Helen Wagg, who translates Escaja’s Spanish-language poetry. As a result, listeners get the chance to hear the poems in their original Spanish and their English translations.
Listen to the show.
Visit her Web site.
Read some of the poems she reads on the show:
From Código de barras (Bar Codes): Una, Grande, Libre (One, Great, Free); Luna morada (Black moon); Mujeres del mercado / Pescaderas del Caribe (Market Women / Fish Vendors)
The pictures that inspired Market Women are from Dan Higgins and were taken in Puerto Cabezas. See samples here.
For the poem “Oído: Pálpito y Ser” (Hearing: Pulse and Life), Higgins, who Escaja calls “my great collaborator,”created this video.
Escaja is originally from Spain and is Professor of Spanish at the University of Vermont. She has published extensively on gender and contemporary literature from Latin America and Spain, and is currently the President of the AILCFH (International Hispanic Women’s Association).
As a writer and scholar, Escaja has authored/edited more than 10 volumes of works that include essays, poetry, plays and fiction. An awarded poet, she has also created experimental and multimedia works, including hypertext, and has fruitfully collaborated and exhibited with artists from a variety of media.
