Lexicon of Affinities - Paperback

by Ida Vitale (Author), Sean Manning (Translator)

A prowl through words reveals the unstable character of the cosmos.

With entries as varied as 'elbow', 'Ophelia', 'progress', the painter Giorgio Morandi, 'chess', 'Eulalia' (a friend of the author's aunt), and 'unicorn', Ida Vitale constructs a dictionary of her long and passionately engaged artistic life. Taking the reader by the arm, she invites us to become her confidant, sharing her remarkable 20th century as a member of a storied generation of Latin American writers, of whom she is the last remaining alive. It's a compendium of friendship, travel, reading, and the endless opportunities she found for 'the joyful possibility of creation.' Like every dictionary, Lexicon of Affinities seeks to impose order on chaos, even if in its exuberant, whimsical profusion it lays bare the unstable character of the cosmos.

Author Biography

Ida Vitale (Uruguay, 1923) is a poet, translator, essayist, and literary critic. In 2018, she was just the fifth woman to receive the prestigious Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the highest recognition for literature in Spanish. In addition to the Cervantes Prize, she has also received the FIL Literature Prize (2018), Max Jacob Prize (2017), Federico Garc?a Lorca Poetry Prize (2016), Reina Sof?a Poetry Prize (2015), Alfonse Reyes Prize (2014), and Octavio Paz Prize (2009), as well as many other honours, including being named by the BBC as one of the 100 most influential women of 2019.

Sean Manning is a translator from Spanish and French. He has translated numerous works by such authors as Ida Vitale, Carlos Pereda, Eduardo Lalo, ?douard Glissant, Gabriela Polit Due?as, Azahara Palomeque, and Ricardo Piglia. His translation of Ida Vitale's Byobu (Charco Press, 2021) was shortlisted for the 2022 Queen Sof?a Spanish Institute Prize. His work has also appeared in Asymptote, Exchanges, AzonaL, The Common, and Review . He has a PhD in Spanish and Latin American literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently a Lecturer teaching courses on language, literature, and writing.