A Stab in the Dark
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Facundo Bernal's A Stab in the Dark (Palos de ciego) is a poetic chronicle of the struggles and joys of the Spanish-speaking community in Los Angeles and in the burgeoning border town of Mexicali during the early 1920s. Sharply satirical yet deeply empathetic, Bernal’s poems are both a landmark of Chicano literature and a captivating read. Anthony Seidman's energetic translation — the first into English — preserves the prickly feel of Bernal’s classic, down to the last stab. This edition also features the original Spanish text, an introduction by the prominent Mexicali writer Gabriel Trujillo Muñoz, an additional introduction by critic Josh Kun, and a foreword by writer and lawyer Yxta Maya Murray.
Facundo Bernal
Facundo Bernal was a poet and journalist. He was born in 1883 in Hermosillo, Mexico. He and his brother Francisco were members of the vibrant bohemian Mexican literary community of the first decades of the 20th century. He died in 1962, in Mexicali.
Anthony Seidman
Translated by
Anthony Seidman is the author of On Carbon-Dating Hunger and Where Thirsts Intersect (The Bitter Oleander, ) as well as I WILL NOT BE A BUTCHER FOR THE WEALTHY (Eyewear, 2017) and A SLEEPLESS MAN SITS UP IN BED (Eyewear, 2017). His poems, articles and translations have appeared widely in Mexico, and his work has been included in the anthologies Corresponding Voices (Point of Contact / Syracuse University), The Ecopoetry Anthology (Trinity University Press) and Asymmetries: An Anthology of Peruvian Poetry (Cardboard House Press). He has recently published work in Bengal Lights, Drunken Boat, Nimrod, World Literature Today, and Modern Poetry In Translation. Seidman resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.
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