Empty Pool

“Neither essays nor prose poems, the pieces in Empty Pool propose a new genre: the essay poem. Vivid and restless, Zapata’s mind ranges through motherhood, octopi, the Covid pandemic, photography, extinction, dogs, translation, birds, memory, recipes, reading aloud, and people who live as if they are “contestants in a sinister gossip-transmission contest organized by some telecommunications company. Each of these haunting, ephemeral, fragmentary and often funny works, beautifully brought into English by Robin Myers,offers a unique and piercing amalgam of the intellectual energy and engagement of the essay and the verbal agility, silence, and ambiguity of poetry.” Esther Allen

“I bet Empty Pool’s pieces will delight Phillip Lopate, the maestro of the personal essay. But I am unsure if I should call them literary toys or jewels: they are both. Kudos to Isabel Zapata and to the translator, Robin Myers.” Carmen Boullosa

“Empty Pool takes the reader on a journey to the inner world: to that of the loss of childhood, memory, the pain caused by things and houses that are no longer there.”. Gatopardo

Posted: October 18, 2024 at 3:18 pm