Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems, 2015

Xánath Caraza

“Caraza’s voice is the pulse of the powerful, mythic earth. Landscape and dreamscape fuse in this rhythmic poetry, as the images Caraza paints and repaints for us—mountains, shells, twisters, deserts—go on “rocking the imagination” through time, history, memory, and that wildest frontier: the heart.”

—Maria Melendez, author of Flexible Bones and How Long She’ll Last in This World.

 

Corazón Pintado (Pandora lobo estepario Press, 2015) by Xánath Caraza

 

Pandora lobo estepario Press, Chicago, IL, has decided to publish the second edition of my chapbook, Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems (2015).  This second edition is revised, augmented, and has a foreword by Nuno Júdice.  I have also added a few more poems and paintings.  The chapbook is a bilingual edition; most of the translations are by me in addition to Sandra Kingery and Stephen Holland-Wempe.  I am certainly thankful for this wonderful opportunity. 

The first edition of Corazón Pintado (2012) was published by TL Press, Kansas City, MO to which I am absolutely thankful since was the first time I was able to see my work in the form of a book.
 

Parts of the second edition of Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems were written with the support from the Beca Nebrija para Creadores 2014 award from the Instituto Franklin in Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.

The artists I have had the honor to work with for Corazon Pintado are the following:

 

Adriana Manuela

Adriana Manuela is a painter and ceramist originally from Mexico. She has participated in individual shows in Mexico and Spain. Currently, she lives in Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain.  Adriana Manuela is working on a new series of ceramics titled: Yolotl.

 

José Jesús Chán Guzmán, AKA Chán

Chán has participated in international collective shows in Mexico, the US, England, France, Spain, Puerto Rico, and Canada.  Chan graduated from the School of Fine Arts, University of Veracruz, in Xalapa, Mexico. In 1992 he received the Ramón Alva de la Canal Award, among others. Currently, he lives in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico with his wife and two dogs.

 

Israel Nazario

Israel Nazario is originally from Santa María Zacatepec, Putla, Oaxaca. He graduated from the School of Fine Arts, UABJO, in the City of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico. His work has been displayed in several collective and individual shows in Mexico, Japan, and Brazil. Currently, he lives in the City of Oaxaca where he teaches, and paints.

 

Thomas Weso

Thomas Weso is an educator and artist. His vivid paintings based on Woodlands motifs are in collections in Washington DC as well as the Midwest, and he has participated in solo and group shows in Kansas and Missouri. Tom is an enrolled member of the Menominee Indian Nation of Wisconsin. He teaches Native American Studies classes at Friends University. He has published personal essays and articles. He received his M.A. in Indigenous Nations Studies from the University of Kansas.

 

I hope you all enjoy the new edition of my book.  We are still working on a release date, but, please, stay tuned.

 

“Xánath Caraza creates poignant visually inspired narratives.  Her ekphrastic poems evoke “eternal wisdom” gained through stories of past generations.”

—Silvia Kofler, editor of Thorny Locust and author of Radioactive Musings.

 

“In her bilingual chapbook, Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems, traveler, educator, poet and short story writer Xánath Caraza conjures up a collection of ekphrastic poems that summon both the indigenous and African roots of Mexico and take the reader through a trip of visual and rhythmic narratives that descend “into the heart of things”.”

—Lauro Vazquez

 

“Water and waves flow through the book, and drag nurturing, cleansing throughout the pages. They are drenched with both death and freedom. A tree standing alone, barren, settled in sadness contrasts images of the sea. All of it pointing in both directions, the past and the future. See the vibrancy, colors smeared across the palate, staining magic, birth, struggle, reality, and dream. Look into the blush, the tint of the painted heart.”

—Lonita Cook, writer for the Examiner

 

“Xánath Caraza has the gift of transforming a story into a poem, even when it has the lyrical melding of a metaphorical touch or a melody.  Further, this is what allows us to listen, in each poem, to that voice which shares and transmits worldly and enduring knowledge.”

            —Nuno Júdice, Lisbon, Portugal
 

For preordering Corazón Pintado: Ekphrastic Poems (2015) go to: Chicago Art Market

 

Corazón Pintado (Pandora lobo estepario Press, 2015) by Xánath Caraza