new from above/ground press: I am a language you are the sound device, by Sandra Moussempès (translated by Eléna Rivera

I am a language you are the sound device
Sandra Moussempès
translated by Eléna Rivera
$5

What connection are we looking for while watching a film,
while reading a poem?
anticipation or eloquence
using a repetitive metaphor

enjambment                “caesura”

the sequences between sound and sense, the poetry of affect,
the juxtaposition of the poem, time and light, fade(s) to black,
point of view, fragment, the metric, subtraction

what’s the difference between exorcism and the close-up
a way of writing in the dark (the visual narrative)

at first it’s a composition of living matter        barely
resized
our thoughts noted        inside the sculpted house

these fragments in a film-loop

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
April 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Cover photograph by Russell Switzer, 2019

Sandra Moussempès is a poet and vocal artist, born in Paris in 1965, and former resident of the Villa Medici. She has published twelve books of poetry including : Cassandre à bout portant (Poésie/Flammarion, 2021), Cinéma de L’affect (Boucles de voix off pour film fantôme) (L’Attente, 2020), Colloque des Télépathes & CD Post-Gradiva (L’Attente 2017), and Sunny girls (Poésie/Flammarion 2015). As a sound and vocal artist, she has recorded four albums and has performed at the Centre Pompidou, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, and MAMCO in Geneva, among others. above/ground press also published a selection from Sunny girls, translated by Eléna Rivera (2017).

Eléna Rivera was born in Mexico City and raised in Paris. Her most recent book of poetry is Epic Series (Shearsman Books, 2020). Her translation of Bernard Noël’s The Rest of the Voyage (Graywolf, 2011) received the Robert Fagles Translation Prize. She also translated Noël’s The Ink’s Path (Cadastre8zéro, 2018), Isabelle Baladine Howald’s Hantôme (forthcoming Black Square Editions, 2021) and Isabelle Garron’s Body Was (forthcoming, Litmus Press, 2021). She received a National Endowment for the Arts in translation and fellowships from MacDowell (2020) and the Trelex Paris Poetry Residency (2019).

This is their second above/ground press chapbook, after From: Sunny girls (2017).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

Amanda Earl reviews five (more) 2017 titles: Sandra Moussempès' From: Sunny girls (trans. Eléna Rivera), Jessica Smith's The Lover is Absent, Lisa Robertson's poorsong one, Buck Downs' the hack of heaven and Sarah Dowling's Entering Sappho

Following her first group review posted here, the esteemed and muchly generous poet, editor, publisher and reviewer (and above/ground press author) Amanda Earl continues her reviews of 2017 above/ground press items, providing a second review of Sandra Moussempès' From: Sunny girls (after Greg Bem's review over at Yellow Rabbits), and first reviews of Jessica Smith's The Lover is Absent, Lisa Robertson's poorsong one, Buck Downs' the hack of heaven and Sarah Dowling's Entering Sappho. Thanks so much! You can see this latest review here.

Greg Bem reviews from: Sunny girls, by Sandra Moussempès (translated by Eléna Rivera (2017)

Seattle WA poet and reviewer Greg Bem was good enough to provide the first review for from: Sunny girls, by Sandra Moussempès (translated by Eléna Rivera (2017) over at Yellow Rabbits. Thanks so much! You can see Bem’s review here.

new from above/ground press: from: Sunny girls, by Sandra Moussempès (translated by Eléna Rivera

Sandra Moussempès, from: Sunny girls
translated by Eléna Rivera
$4

J’AVAIS REMARQUÉ UNE MAISON SANS FIORITURE

Je vais trop loin
Je ne vais pas assez loin
J’entends un souffle derrière moi


I HAD NOTICED AN UNADORNED HOUSE

I go too far
I don't go far enough
I hear a breath behind me

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
March 2017
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

These poems originally appeared in French in the collection Sunny girls, published by Flammarion in 2015.

Sandra Moussempès, born in Paris in 1965, is a poet. Former resident of the Villa Médicis of the Academy of France in Rome, she has contributed to various reviews and anthologies in France and abroad. She is the author of nine volumes of poetry: Exercices d’incendie, éditions Fourbis, 1994, Vestiges de fillette, éditions Flammarion, 1997, Captures, éditions Flammarion, 2004, Photogénie des ombres peintes, éditions Flammarion, 2009, Acrobaties dessinées & CD Beauty Sitcom (Audio-poèmes), éditions de l’Attente, 2012 and Sunny girls, éditions Flammarion, 2015. She likes to decipher the mental codes that surround us through disrupting conventional imagery, in particular, clichés about the feminine, through the creation of a troubling environment, which has often cinematographic qualities or is inspired by sensations of déjà vu. She has translated American poet Kristin Prevallet into French, and has been translated by Kristin Prevallet, Serge Gavronsky, Lee-Ann Brown, and Carolyn Ducker. Moussempès works as a creative writing teacher. She is also a vocal and sound artist and has performed at Mamco in Geneva, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Carré d’Art in Nîmes, and other poetry festivals.

Eléna Rivera is a poet and translator. She won the 2010 Robert Fagles prize for her translation of Bernard Noël’s The Rest of the Voyage (Graywolf Press, 2011) and is a recipient of a 2010 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Translation. She has also translated three books by Isabelle Baladine Howald, Parting Movement, Constantly Prevented (Oystercatcher Press, 2014), Secret of Breath (Burning Deck, 2009) and The Pain of Returning (Mindmade Books 2012). Eléna's most recent books of poetry are Scaffolding (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, 2017), Atmosphered (Oystercatcher Press, 2014), On the Nature of Position and Tone (Fields Press, 2012) and The Perforated Map (Shearsman Books, 2011).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com