Lorcation

When acclaimed Canadian writer Brian Dedora travelled to Spain in 2012 to explore ＂Lorca’s Granada,＂ he experienced an unexpected transformation that set him on a path of understanding--of the life and work of Federico Garcia Lorca, of the basic elements in common between the Spanish writer’s life and his own, and of the tragic grandeur of Lorca’s death in Granada in 1936.

Lorcation progresses transformationally from prose poem to informal essay, sustained by its three vital metaphors of journey, suitcase, and crossroads. The book, presented as a bilingual English and Spanish edition, follows Dedora’s reading and re-enactment of Lorca’s life and writing, especially the Spanish author’s emergent awareness of his homosexuality, culminating, for Dedora, in a new understanding of Lorca’s call to attend to the living within the enigma of death.

With its blending of the personal with the historical, Lorcation by Brian Dedora will fascinate lovers of Lorca’s writing, and may just spur on a whole new generation of readers to discover the life, loves, and losses of this enigmatic Spanish virtuoso.

British Columbia-born Brian Dedora is a writer and performance artist whose work has been anthologized and widely published in special and limited editions. His books include Eye Where: A Book of Visuals (2014), A Few Sharp Sticks (2011), A Slice of Voice at the Edge of Hearing (2008), which was shortlisted for the ReLit and George Ryga Awards, With WK in the Workshop (1989), as well as White Light (1987). Dedora lives in Toronto, Canada and Granada, Spain.

Martín Rodríguez-Gaona (Lima, 1969) has published several books of poetry, including Efectos personales (Personal Effects) (1993), Pista de baile (Dance Track) (1997), Parque infantil (Playground) (2005), Codex de los poderes y los encantos (A Codex of Powersand Spells) (2011), and Madrid, línea circular (Madrid, circular line) (2013, winner of the City of Cáceres Poetry Prize), and the essay ＂Mejorando lo presente. Poesía española última: posmodernidad, humanismo y redes＂ (Improving the present. Latest Spanish poetry: postmodernism, humanism and networks) (2010). He was a fellow at the Foundation Residencia de Estudiantes from 1999-2001, and worked as literary advisor for this institution until 2005. He also won the International Fellowship of Poetry Antonio Machadode Soria in 2010. His translations of poetry include La sabiduría de las brujas de John Giorno (2008) and Pirografía (Pyrography: Poems 1957-1985) (2003), a selection of ten books by John Ashbery.