Synopsis "From the Forbidden Garden: Letters From Alejandra Pizarnik to Antonio Beneyto"
From the Forbidden Garden: Letters from Alejandra Pizarnik to Antonio Beneyto offers an intimate self-portrait of Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972), one of the greatest Latin American poets of the twentieth century. The letters, written to this Spanish writer, editor, and artist between September 2, 1969 and September 12, 1972 display her insight, the forcefulness of her language, and her humorous use of wordplay and puns. They reveal Pizarnik's process of self-discovery and artistic exploration in her literary life, as well as the development of her work in progress. These letters introduce us to Pizarnik's literary friends, the artists, poets, and writers she preferred and her reactions to them. She collaborated on various projects and cultivated many close literary and personal ties with writers of the stature of Julio Cortazar, Olga Orozco, Octavio Paz, Silvina Ocampo, Luisa Sofovich, and Pieyre de Mandiargues, among others. Carlota Caulfield is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Mills College. Translator Angela McEwan holds an M.A. in Spanish from the University of California at Irvine.
