32 Poems||32 Poemas
A Bilingual Collection || Un Poemario Bilingüe
Published April 2021 by Suburbano Ediciones
With a foreword by President Obama's inaugural poet Richard Blanco, this new bilingual collection includes 32 poems by American poet Hyam Plutzik (1911-1962) that have been translated into Spanish by fourteen poets/translators under the aegis of editor George B. Henson.
This volume by Plutzik, thrice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is bound to stimulate cross-cultural dialogue between immigrant cultures of past and present. As Blanco points out in his foreword: "Through the timeless art and grace of poetry, my 1968 Miami merges with Plutzik's 1911 Brooklyn, our parents become immigrants from the same country, and our languages blend as one."
Press Release: English | Español
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About Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco
Richard Blanco was selected by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history, the youngest and the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person in this role. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, he interrogates the American narrative in How to Love a Country. Other memoirs include For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Blanco serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and as an Associate Professor at Florida International University.
Watch: Richard Blanco reads from his foreword to 32 Poems/32 Poemas
About the Editor, George B. Henson
George B. Henson is a literary translator and assistant professor of Spanish Translation at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. His translations include works by some of Latin America’s most important literary figures, including Cervantes Prize laureates Elena Poniatowska and Sergio Pitol, as well as works by Andrés Neuman, Miguel Barnet, Juan Villoro, Leonardo Padura, Alberto Chimal, and The Betsy Hotel’s Carlos Pintado. Writing in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Ignacio Sánchez Prado called him “one of the most important literary translators at work in the United States today.” In addition to his work as translator and academic, he serves as a contributing editor for World Literature Today and translation editor for Latin American Literature Today.
About the Translators:
Layla Benitez-James
Layla Benitez-James is a poet, translator, and artist living in Alicante, Spain. Translations can be found in Waxwing and Anomaly. She currently works with the Unamuno Author Series in Madrid as its Director of Literary Outreach. As Asymptote´s Podcast Editor, she produces audio essays about translation and world literature. Her first collection of poetry, God Suspected My Heart Was a Geode But He Had to Make Sure, was selected by Major Jackson for the 2017 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Chapbook Prize and published by Jai-Alai Books in Miami.
Listen: A Tremor is Heard in the House of the Dead Man - read by Lalya Benitez-James
Pablo Brescia
Pablo Brescia was born in Buenos Aires and has lived in the United States since 1986. He has published three books of short stories: La derrota de lo real/The Defeat of the Real (USA/Mexico, 2017), Fuera de Lugar/Out of Place (Peru, 2012/Mexico, 2013) and La apariencia de las cosas/The Appearance of Things (México, 1997), and a book of hybrid texts No hay tiempo para la poesía/NoTime for Poetry. He teaches Latin American Literature at the University of South Florida.
Watch: Connecticut Autumn, The Old War, and Hiroshima read by Pablo Brescia
Pablo Cartaya
Pablo Cartaya is a professional code-switcher and the acclaimed author of The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish, and Each Tiny Spark debuting on the new Kokila Penguin/Random House Imprint. He’s an American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Honor Author, an Audie Award Finalist (for narration and title), a Publisher’s Weekly Flying Start, and the 2018 Thurber House Writer-in-Residence. He teaches creative writing at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe’s MFA program and serves as consultant for The Betsy – South Beach Literary Programs.
Watch: Pablo Reads On Hearing That my Poems Were Being Studied in a Distant Place
Carlos A. Del Valle Cruz
Carlos A. Del Valle Cruz (b. 1955 - d. 2020) was passionate about poetry, and was also a Civil Rights & Public Interest Advocacy Attorney in Puerto Rico.
Rhina P. Espaillat
Dominican-born Rhina P. Espaillat is a bilingual poet, essayist, short story writer, translator, and former English teacher in New York City’s public high schools. She has published twelve books, five chapbooks, and a monograph on translation. She has earned numerous national and international awards, and is a founding member of the Fresh Meadows Poets of NYC and the Powow River Poets of Newburyport, MA. Her most recent works are three poetry collections: And After All, The Field, and Brief Accident of Light: A Day in Newburyport, co-authored with Alfred Nicol.
George Franklin
George Franklin is the author of Traveling for No Good Reason (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions 2018), of the bilingual poetry book, Among the Ruins / Entre las Ruinas (Katakana Editores), a Shreveport flyer (Broadsided Press), and is the winner of the First Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize 2020. He practices law in Miami, teaches poetry workshops in Florida state prisons, and is the co-translator, along with the author, of Ximena Gómez's poetry book Último día / Last Day .
Ximena Gómez
Ximena Gómez, a Colombian poet, translator and psychologist, lives in Miami. She has published: Habitación con moscas (Ediciones Torremozas, Madrid 2016), Último día /Last Day, a bilingual poetry book (Katakana Editores 2019). She is the translator of George Franklin's bilingual poetry book, Among the Ruins/Entre las ruinas (Katakana Editores, Miami 2018). She was a finalist in "The Best of the Net" award and the runner up for the 2019 Gulf Stream poetry contest.
Pedro Medina
Pedro Medina is author of the books Streets of Miami, Mañana no te veré en Miami, and Lado B and is editor of Viaje One Way—a Miami anthology of narrators, named Book of the Year by Artes Miami in 2014. Medina is also editor and director of Suburbano publishing, a leading US cultural magazine and publishing house. He is also a columnist contributor to El Nuevo Herald and has taught courses in narrative technique in the Koubek Center in Miami Dade College (2013 and 2015).
Natalia Molinos Navarro
Natalia Molinos Navarro has a Degree in Geography and History from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a PhD in Art and Cultural Heritage from the University of Alicante (Spain). She has worked as an art critic in print, radio and digital media. In addition to her academic publications, some of her short stories have been selected for publication in anthologies. As a translator, she has worked for several years with children's books for Everest-Disney Publishing House and on cultural projects for different institutions.
Carlos Pintado
Carlos Pintado is a Cuban American writer, playwright, and award-winning poet who emigrated to the United States in the early 1990s. His book Autorretrato en Azul received the prestigious Sant Jordi International Prize for Poetry, and his book El Azar y los Tesoros was a finalist for Spain’s Adonais Prize in 2008. His work has been translated into English, Italian, German, French, Turkish, and Portuguese. Nine Coins/Nueve Monedas is his latest collection of poetry.
Listen: The Last Fisherman - read by Carlos Pintado (English | Spanish)
Jonathan Rose
Jonathan Rose, a bilingual immigration attorney and cultural activist, is an accomplished poet, translator, and writer who was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2001. He serves as Program Director of the South Florida Writers Association and is Cultural Correspondent for the e-mail arts calendar, Cultural Bulletin, which he has published since 1999. He has moderated the Famous Last Friday Open Mic Poetry Readings at Books and Books in Coral Gables since 1992.
Jorge Vessel
Jorge Vessel is a Venezuelan writer, translator and engineer. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University. He has published Pájaro de Cuero Negro (CELARG, 2004), winner of the Poetry Prize Fernando Paz Castillo (Venezuela), and La Carencia (2019), winner of the Premio de Poesía Federico Muelas (Spain). His work has appeared in important anthologies including Cuerpo Plural (Pre-Textos, 2010). As of 2019, he is part of the Unamuno Authors Series committee.
Jose A. Villar-Portela
José A. Villar-Portela lives on the hyphen between Cuban and American culture that some call Miami. When he’s not slaying dragons, he’s working on his PhD in Hispanic Literature, reading too many books at once and writing hermetic poems. He’s also a literary translator and professional pet psychic. For more information, find him at the library. And bring coffee.
Gastón Virkel
Gastón Virkel is a writer and scriptwriter. In 2019 he published Maldito Lasticön, his first novel with Suburbano Ediciones (SEd). It tells the story of an accursed poet and his poetry. Two years earlier, the same publisher issued Cuentos Atravesados, his first book of short stories. His work has been featured in several anthologies. On sunny days he simply defines himself as a storyteller, aiming to not let any platform out of his reach.
About the Publisher
Suburbano Ediciones (SED) is the independent publishing label for Hispanic authors in the United States. Our goal is to give literature written in Spanish in North America the recognition it does not have.
Sobre el Editor
Suburbano Ediciones (SED) es el sello editorial independiente de los autores hispanos en Estados Unidos. Nuestro objetivo es darle a la literatura escrita en español en Norteamérica, el reconocimiento que no tiene.
Reviews of 32 Poems/Poemas
(Download)
Nagari Magazine
Literal Magazine
(In English | En Español)
“El poeta Hyam Plutzik comparte un ‘mundo’ de inmigrantes en edición bilingüe”, as published in Spanish by:
Read English translation: “Poet Hyam Plutzik shares a ‘world’ of immigrants in bilingual edition”
Upcoming Events:
American Literary Translators Association (ALTA)
October 15–17, 2021 (Virtual)
Topic: Does translation transcend difference?
Considering the reciprocity and "culture gap" challenges faced by the Spanish-language translators of 32 Poems / 32 Poemas (Suburbano Ediciones) by Hyam Plutzik.
Featuring Dr. George B Henson, Assistant Professor of Spanish Translation, Middlebury Institute, Layla Benitez-James, Director of Literary Outreach, Unamuno Author Series, Madrid, Spain, and Pablo Brescia, Professor of Spanish, Department of World Languages, University of South Florida
Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Conference (JAHLit)
May 2022 (rescheduled due to COVID from October 2021)
Miami Beach, Florida
(Live Event)
Topic: Three scholars present papers on Jewish American Poet, Hyam Plutzik
Featuring Dr. Sander Goodhart, Purdue University, Dr. Naomi Sokoloff, University of Washington, and Edward J. Moran, Hyam Plutzik Scholar and 32 Poemas Essayist, Hosted by Dr. Holli Levitsky - Director of JAHLit, Professor at Loyola Marymount, LA
Miami International Book Fair (MBIF)
November 14-21, 2021
Miami Beach, Florida
(Live Event)
Topic: Poetry Reading and Conversation on 32 Poems/32 Poemas by Hyam Plutzik
Featuring 32 Poemas principal book editor, Dr. George Henson, essayist Edward Moran, and translator Dr. Pablo Brescia, with a guest appearance by Obama Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco - who wrote the 32 Poemas Foreword. Poet and translator Layla Benitez James will join the conversation (via zoom) from her home in Alicante, Spain.
Media
Watch: Richard Blanco reads from his foreword to 32 Poems/32 Poemas
Watch: The Last Fisherman, read by Alberto Carvalho -Superintendent of Schools, Miami Dade County
Watch: Two Poems of Hyam Plutzik - Composer: Jeffery L. Briggs, Recitation by Alberto Carvalho. Performed by The Miami Music Festival Orchestra.
Watch: Art Videos by Mark Wylie - From The Last Fisherman by Hyam Plutzik (English | Spanish)
Listen: A Tremor is Heard in the House of the Dead Man - read by Lalya Benitez-James
Listen: The Last Fisherman - read by Carlos Pintado, poet (English | Spanish)
Listen and Watch: Connecticut Autumn, The Old War, and Hiroshima read by Pablo Brescia
Listen and Watch: On Hearing That my Poems Were Being Studied in a Distant Place read by Pablo Cartaya
Read: The Last Fisherman, Of Enternity Considered as a Closed System, To My Daughter from Nagari Magazine
Read: A Review of 32 Poems from Nagari Magazine
Listen: Ed Moran (essayist for 32 Poems) talks about the work of Hyam Plutzik and reads his own work.