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.
Lacy M. Johnson : The Reckonings
Christine Schutt : Pure Hollywood
Mitchell S. Jackson : Survival Math
Marlon James : Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore : Sketchtasy
Alicia Jo Rabins : Fruit Geode
Genevieve Hudson : Pretend We Live Here
Jeffrey Yang : Hey Marfa
Chaya Bhuvaneswar : White Dancing Elephants
Layli Long Soldier : Whereas
Diane Williams: The Collected Stories of Diane Williams
R.O. Kwon : The Incendiaries
Tommy Pico : Junk
Dubravka Ugrešić : Fox & American Fictionary
Anna Moschovakis : Eleanor or The Rejection of the Progress of Love
Dao Strom : You Will Always Be Someone From Somewhere Else
Catherine Lacey : Certain American States
Forrest Gander : Be With
Chelsea Hodson : Tonight I’m Someone Else
Molly Crabapple : Brothers of the Gun – A Memoir of the Syrian War
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Anne of Avonlea
The Story of Mankind
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends