Weigel reading at the book launch in New York, May 12, 2012
Jorge Santiago Perednik's long poem The Shock of the Lenders has been published in sections in English over a period of years, starting with "The Main Fragment," which first appeared in Sulfur in 1992, and was subsequently reprinted in The XUL Reader (Roof Books, 1997) and The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry (2009). The other sections, or fragments, of the poem, meanwhile, appeared only recently, in S/N: New World Poetics in 2010. In the present volume the poem in English appears for the first time in its entirety. This new wholeness, presented with a generous sampling of other Perednik poems from different periods, provides a new context for the work in English, and an opportunity to explore some other contexts that can help to deepen a reading of these translations and to resist an easy consumption of them as "experimental" poetry independent of language or culture.
Jorge Santiago Perednik, editor of the essential Xul magazine, from Buenos Aires, is a poet of transformations and intimacies, gestures and jests, epochal lyrics and lyric epics, lurid lines and luring stanzas. The sheer intelligence of his social critique brushes constantly against the shine of his poems' sounds and cuts. Molly Weigal offers a perfect introduction to this great poet of the Americas.
Jorge Santiago Perednik (1952-2011) was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. An influential poet and literary critic, he was also a publisher and a translator of English and American poetry. He founded several literary journals, two of the most influential being XUL and Deriva. The former was an important poetry journal that started publishing during Argentina’s last military dictatorship in 1980; it continued until 1997 with the printing of its 12th issue. As a journal, XUL provided regular compilations of some the most innovative poetry of its time. The journal was also one of Argentina’s best sources of new critical writing. It was dedicated to publishing the most diverse poetics within the experimental tradition. Perednik's work as a poet and editor reflected his interest in many of the poetics included in the journal: visual poetry; John Cage’s mesostics; sound and performative texts--along with the most serious experimental works in Spanish American poetry. Perednik’s writing was primarily associated with his always expanding interest in exploring language and its relation to poetry rather than with any particular literary school.
Jorge Santiago Perednik, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1952, was the author of poetry, essays, and translations. He died this morning in Buenos Aires.
Perednik was a poet of transformations and intimacies, gestures and jests, epochal lyrics and lyric epics, lurid lines and luring stanzas. The sheer intelligence of his social critique brushes constantly against the shine of his poems' sounds and cuts.
His poetry collections include El Shock de los Lender (1986), El fin del no (1991), and El Gran Derrapador (2002), among others. His poems have appeared in English in The XUL Reader (1992) The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry (2009); and The Shock of the Lenders and Other Poems is forthcoming from Action Books. He has translated poets including Charles Olson and Jerome Rothenberg into Spanish. Perednik is Director of the Program of Advanced Studies in Poetry at the University of Buenos Aires. He founded XUL Magazine in 1980.
Charles Olson, Poemas, tr. Jorge Santiago Perednick and Ernesto Livon Grosman
S/N: NewWorldPoetics
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