Rediscover JOYCE MANSOUR, the most significant Surrealist poet to emerge from 1950s Paris. Join us at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore on Thursday, September 7th at 7:00 pm for a night of poetry and discussion of the life of celebrated Surrealist poet Joyce Mansour. Bay area poets (left to right) SOPHIA DAHLIN and KIM ADDONIZIO join poet and editor GARRETT CAPLES to read from the new collection of Joyce's poetry Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems. The evening will include discussion, Q&A, and book signing.
This event is free, but you must register in advance through Eventbrite or at the store. Click here to order your copy of Emerald Wounds.
“You know very well, Joyce, that you are for me—and very objectively too—the greatest poet of our time. Surrealist poetry, that’s you.”—André Breton
Joyce Mansour was a Syrian Jewish exile from Egypt whose fierce, macabre, erotically charged works gave André Breton’s Surrealist group a much-needed jolt after the ravages of the Second World War. Among new adherents, only Mansour wrote poems commensurate with those of Robert Desnos, René Char, Benjamin Pêret, and other poets from the movement’s heyday.
Emerald Wounds: Selected Poems by Joyce Mansour is a compact yet career-spanning, bilingual anthology of this incendiary poet. With a biographical introduction by translator Emilie Moorhouse, who was drawn to Mansour's tough, take-no-prisoners stance during the societal reckoning of the #MeToo movement, Emerald Wounds showcases the entire arc of her trajectory as a poet, from the at-once gothic and minimalist fragments of her first collection in 1953, Screams, to the serpentine power of her final poems of the 1980s. Juxtaposing the original French poems with their English translations, Mansour’s voice surges forward uncensored and raw, communicating the frustrations, anger, and sadness of an intelligent, worldly woman who defies the constraints and oppression of a male-dominated society that sees women as superficial objects of desire rather than multidimensional, autonomous subjects. Mansour is a poet the world needs today.
JOYCE MANSOUR was born in England in 1928 to a Jewish family of Syrian descent who moved to Egypt when she was still an infant. Mansour was part of the inner circle of Surrealists, a close friend of André Breton, and the most significant poet to join the group after World War II. She wrote 16 books of poetry, as well as prose, works, and plays. She lived in Paris, France until her death in 1986 at age of 58.
SOPHIA DAHLIN is a poet in Berkeley. She leads generative poetry workshops and teaches youth creative writing. With Jacob Kahn, she edits a small chapbook press called Eyelet. Her first book, Natch, was released in 2020 by City Lights Books.
GARRETT CAPLES is a poet and an editor for City Lights Books, where he curates the the Spotlight Poetry Series. He is also the co-editor of the Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia, editor of Preserving Fire: Selected Prose by Philip Lamantia, and author of the poetry collection Lovers of Today (2021). He lives in San Francisco, CA.
KIM ADDONIZIO has published over a dozen books of poetry and prose. Her latest poetry collection is Now We’re Getting Somewhere (WW Norton). Addonizio’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and numerous journals and anthologies. Tell Me was National Book Award finalist. She teaches poetry workshops on Zoom. https://www.kimaddonizio.com
THIS EVENT is free but pre-registration is required. Registration ends at 5:00 pm on September 7th.
BECAUSE SEATING is limited, please register only if you plan to attend.
DUE TO SPACE limitations, we may not be able to accommodate every person at an event, so early registration is encouraged.
WALK-INS will be accommodated only if space allows.
WE ASK that attendees arrive between 6:45 and 7:00 PM for the event.
PLEASE leave your non-support companion animals at home.
OUR shared restrooms are not accessible after 6:30 PM, please plan accordingly.
