Of Sawako Nakayasu’s many literary endeavors—poetry, translation, performance art—it is hard to know where one begins and another ends. They each seem to not only be talking to each other but Sawako’s work also blurs the boundaries between them, nesting each within the next in a way that illuminates something about all three. Her latest poetry collection, Pink Waves, is a perfect example of this, poetry written within a durational performance, one that involves “microtranslations” of the syntax of the works of others. As Fred Moten says about Pink Waves: “In a deliberate lyricism of regathering, tethering, and receding precedence, in a perpetual canon that keeps spilling and sifting and replenishing what feels like dancing, in a series of breaks weaving wave and snap into writing that listens, Sawako Nakayasu takes the measure of the enjoyment we derive from sensing and making sense of this wasteland of bandwidth and access. Pink Waves is a delicate instrument. Its spare beauty picks up everything.”
Much of Sawako Nakayasu’s genre-transgressive work calls into question our notions of originality and selfhood, as she herself explores questions of race and gender and sexual orientation within her poems. By bringing together these various elements, Sawako Nakayasu creates generative questions: How can queer theory speak to translation practices? How can we engage with questions of power between nations and languages and cultures by the choices we make in translation? What does performance tell us about ourselves, and the notion of a self to begin with? And how do these performative and translational activities manifest in poetry, in poems?
If you enjoy today’s conversation consider joining the Between the Covers community as a listener-supporter. Each patron receives a resource-rich email with each episode and can participate in the collective brainstorm of who to invite in the future, and choose from a wealth of other rewards and gifts from rare collectibles to writing consultations. There is also the possibility of subscribing to the bonus audio archive which includes contributions from such luminary poets as Rosmarie Waldrop, Forrest Gander, Dionne Brand, Natalie Diaz, Nikky Finney, Arthur Sze, Layli Long Soldier, and many more. Check it all out at the show’s Patreon page.
And don’t miss today’s Bookshop!
The post Sawako Nakayasu : Pink Waves appeared first on Tin House.
Yuri Herrera : Kingdom Cons
Gregory Pardlo : Digest
Dani Shapiro : Hourglass
Jeff Vandermeer : Borne
Thalia Field : Experimental Animals
Sallie Tisdale : Violation
Morgan Parker : There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé
Melissa Febos : Abandon Me
Ursula K. Le Guin : Words Are My Matter
Susan DeFreitas : Hot Season
Solmaz Sharif : Look
Sofia Samatar : The Winged Histories
Tyehimba Jess : Olio
Eliot Weinberger : The Ghosts of Birds
Pauls Toutonghi : Dog Gone
Monica Drake : The Folly of Loving Life
Alexis Smith : Marrow Island
Jesse Ball : How to Set a Fire and Why
Rikki Ducornet : Brightfellow
Lina Meruane : Seeing Red
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends