Vocative Figure

Poetry." Since the publication of ETAT in 1971, Anne-Marie Albiach has stood alone among the French poets of her generation. In her latest book, FIGURE VOCATIVE, now scrupulously translated into English by Anthony Barnett and Joseph Simas, she has achieved a sublime lyricism as her work continues its quest for a language grounded in the body, in the physicality of utterance. There is a passionate intelligence set into motion here, but at the same time a new depth of feeling, a sense of...
More Description

Poetry." Since the publication of ETAT in 1971, Anne-Marie Albiach has stood alone among the French poets of her generation. In her latest book, FIGURE VOCATIVE, now scrupulously translated into English by Anthony Barnett and Joseph Simas, she has achieved a sublime lyricism as her work continues its quest for a language grounded in the body, in the physicality of utterance. There is a passionate intelligence set into motion here, but at the same time a new depth of feeling, a sense of 'the inconceivable hour/when everything explodes' - which overwhelms the reader as he is propelled from one astonishing phrase to the next. This is a work that wounds and inspires, that expands our notions of what poetry can be" -Paul Auster, ed. The Random House Book of Twentieth Century French Poetry.