In her debut English-language collection, contemporary Greek poet Dimitra Kotoula takes on contemporary Greek society in challenging lyrical forms.
IN THE SLOW HORIZON THAT BREATHES, a selection from her first three books, published between 2004 - 2022, Kotoula—a poet born after the military Junta—engages modern Greek struggles, including troubled relationships, the financial crisis, motherhood, and the act of writing. Translated by Maria Nazos in close collaboration with the author, and introduced by A.E. Stallings, this volume presents to English readers Kotoula's masterful transformation of private demons into a public resonance.
"These are poems that shimmer as they transform tragic, ironic histories and alienating religious doctrines into lyrical lines of immediate physical and visceral intensity. Kotoula's voice embraces an autonomous selfhood based on the female bodily experience which like seasonal landscapes can be both breathtaking and discordant: 'I want you to feel this blue / color of loneliness and uncertainty / and nothing else / while the air and earth inflame / a sudden blooming.' Maria Nazos brings her mastery as poet and translator to render Kotoula's irrepressible spirit on the page. We can be grateful for this collaboration for turning the rubble of contemporary life into something beautiful and lasting."—Dzvinia Orlowsky
"Kotoula subtly and masterfully transforms … private demons into a public resonance."—A.E. Stallings,
The Poetry Review
"Writing in dialogue with the twentieth-century poets of ancient myth (George Seferis and Angelos Sikelianos among them), Dimitra Kotoula brings fresh language and a feminine touch to familiar themes."—Karen Van Dyck, introduction to
Austerity Measures
(NYRB, 2016)
Poetry. Women's Studies.