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.
Percival Everett : The Trees
Myriam J. A. Chancy : What Storm, What Thunder
Tin House Live : Negotiating the Love and Renouncing the Rest with Destiny O. Birdsong and Donika Kelly
Pádraig Ó Tuama : In the Shelter & Borders and Belonging
Adania Shibli : Minor Detail
Tin House Live : Writing On Your Own Terms with Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Kaveh Akbar : Pilgrim Bell
Callum Angus : A Natural History of Transition
Douglas Kearney : Sho
Arthur Sze : The Glass Constellation : New & Collected Poems
Anakana Schofield : Bina
Doireann Ní Ghríofa : A Ghost in the Throat & To Star the Dark
Abdellah Taïa : A Country For Dying
Elissa Washuta : White Magic
Rikki Ducornet : Trafik
Jorie Graham : Runaway
Brandon Hobson : The Removed
Viet Thanh Nguyen : The Committed
Ross Gay : Be Holding
Teju Cole : Fernweh
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Frankenstein
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends