Helene Cardona's Blog

I'll be reading at 3:20-3:40 pm on the Poetry Stage, at the Los Angeles Festival of Books, USC.
Free event.
Followed by a Book signing at Small World Books, Area 2, next to the Poetry Stage.

Dreaming My Animal Selves / Le Songe de mes Âmes AnimalesLife in Suspension: La Vie SuspendueBirnam Wood: El Bosque de BirnamBirnam Wood: El Bosque de BirnamThe Abduction

The Abduction (my translation of Maram Al-Masri) wins the 2024 Independent Press Award:
https://www.independentpressaward.com...

The Abduction is a World Literature Today's Notable Translation:
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/...

Many thanks to The US Review of Books for the beautiful recommended review of The Abduction, my translation of Le Rapt by Maram Al Masri:
https://www.theusreview.com/reviews-1...



Book review by Nicole Yurcaba

"He has begun to speak to me
with his eight tiny teeth."
Opening with poems celebrating the wonder of new life, this collection explores birth, development, motherhood, and the terrifying experience of losing one’s child to an act of abduction. In this book, an empty house becomes a metaphor for a woman longing for her child: “A house like mine / may be hiding wounds / may be hiding stories.” These verses also explore the speaker’s harrowing emotional journey as she navigatse the present and potential future without her son. Additionally, the book provides readers with philosophical takes on what it truly means to love another person: “To love, it is to prepare yourself / to be abandoned.” At the same time, the speaker also questions why humans must love the way they do, given that the experience can transform into something utterly terrifying and painful.

These poems rely on minimalist forms and language to create a significantly deep message about what it is to lose the one person who shapes another person’s existence. The evocative images and emotions displayed in this book leave readers feeling the speaker’s pain and heartbreak. The collection also addresses socio-political issues like immigration, and it gives anecdotes that give readers a first-hand glimpse into the sense of otherness with which many immigrants live in their new homelands: “Immigrant / you will always be / in the crosshairs of suspicion.” These anecdotes speak loudly in an America rife with political tensions surrounding the issue. Thus, the collection transforms from a personal exploration of loss and grief into a larger conversation about one’s role in a new society. Poetry lovers who appreciate poems with a deeply personal yet socially conscious message will appreciate this book.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

BETWEEN LONGINGS FOR WHAT WAS AND THE EPIPHANIES OF THE BEYOND: A REVIEW OF HÉLÈNE CARDONA’S LIFE IN SUSPENSION:
https://www.theantonymmag.com/between...

Life in Suspension: La Vie Suspendue

"Such yearning towards the divine in Cardona’s poetic voice is reinforced by a proclivity towards enchantment and mysticism."

I'll be reading from The Abduction, my new translation of Maram Al Masri:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://helenecardona.com/translations
https://www.whitepine.org/the-abduction

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of White Pine Press at Beyond Baroque! Established in 1973, White Pine Press has been at the forefront in bringing the rich diversity of world literature to the English speaking audience. Publishing poetry, fiction, essays, and literature in translation from around the world. Join Editor/Publisher Dennis Maloney alongside White Pine-published authors: Hélène Cardona, Tzveta Sofronieva, Yun Wang, and Christopher Merrill for an evening of poetry readings including new and selected works. The evening will be hosted by poet and translator Gail Wronsky.

Beyond Baroque
681 Venice Blvd
Venice Beach
Los Angeles, CA 90291

"Hélène Cardona’s masterful translation of The Abduction by French-Syrian poet Maram Al-Masri contains luminescent pages where readers will traverse tidal currents of raw emotion, passionate love, and the sting of separation. Unfurled through motifs of motherhood, nascent innocence, the ache of parting, and the fragility of memory, the verses offer a rare glimpse into the psyche of a mother torn from her offspring. This collection of poems is a sacred remembrance, reminding the reader of our deep connections between a parent and child and within the family. And the deep sorrows we face when those connections are sundered unexpectedly."
--Julian Press Book Reviews:
http://www.saintjulianpress.com/the-a...

This week Cobalt Poets presents Hélène Cardona plus open reading:
Hélène Cardona’s Life in Suspension is called “a vivid self-portrait as scholar, seer and muse” by John Ashbery, and David Mason described Dreaming My Animal Selves as “liminal, mystical and other-worldly,” adding, “this is a poet who writes in a rare light.” Hailed as visionary by Richard Wilbur, Cardona’s luminous poetry explores consciousness, the power of place, and ancestral roots. It is poetry of alchemy and healing, a gateway to the unconscious and the dream world. She has authored 5 translations, is the recipient of over 20 awards & honors, and her work has been translated into 19 languages. Dreaming My Animal Selves / Le Songe de mes Âmes AnimalesLife in Suspension: La Vie Suspendue Tuesday, Aug 15, 7:30 PST.
Signups for the open reading start at 7:15pm in the Zoom Chat.
https://www.facebook.com/events/27835...
When you RSVP, please use your full real name as your Zoom identity so you can be let in, and DM me so I can let Rick Lupert know.

So happy! The Abduction received a Readers Favorite's 5 Starred Review:
https://readersfavorite.com/book-revi...
If anyone would like a signed copy, please DM me! 😘
Huge thanks to Luwi Nyakansaila and Readers Favorite 🥰

Celebrate Mother's Day with The Abduction, the story of a mother who reunites with her son after 13 years.
The Abduction
Winner of an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant from Villa Albertine.
"Hélène Cardona's deft translations capture both the stark immediacy and haunting music of these moving poems, almost letting us believe they were written in English."
—Martha Collins, author of Casualty Reports
"Maram Al-Masri's Le Rapt, as translated by Hélène Cardona, opens with the simple delights of a mother engaging with her young child, speaking to him as if he is a confidant. "He is occupied / making his ten fingers move / to convince me that love is the natural fruit / of the tree of life," she writes, and what could be more wonderful than that? Bliss, however, is followed by unbearable grief, when her child is abducted and separated from her for years by her then husband.
The poems become the vessel for her dialogue with her missing child, and with her sorrow. Even when mother and child experience a complex reunion years later, each has learned to fear loving the other, and her son must face a second infancy, this time as an immigrant, much less blissful than the first. As a reader of poetry, I am compelled by the raw spareness of these poems, their keen honesty, and their refusal to provide us with a restoration arc. As a parent, I feel empathy, and awe at Al-Masri's survival."
—Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry