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.
Tin House Live : Lidia Yuknavitch on “Writing from the Deep Cut”
N.K. Jemisin : The City We Became
Nikky Finney : Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry
Tin House Live : Rebecca Makkai on The Ear of the Story
Fernanda Melchor : Hurricane Season
Hanif Abdurraqib : A Fortune For Your Disaster
Tin House Live : How to Write a Hoax Poem with Kevin Young
Rachel Zucker : SoundMachine
Tin House Live : Power & Audience, On Not Writing for White People with Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Tin House Live : On Dialogue with Dorothy Allison
Mark Haber : Reinhardt’s Garden
Jenny Offill : Weather
Lance Olsen : My Red Heaven
Tin House Live : “From First Draft to Plot” with Alexander Chee
Garth Greenwell : Cleanness
Carmen Maria Machado : In the Dream House
Tin House Live : Jericho Brown on Suicide & Joy
E. J. Koh : The Magical Language of Others
Karthika Naïr : Until the Lions : Echoes from the Mahabharata
CAConrad : Resurrect Extinct Vibration
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends