Written largely after the death of his mother, Argentinian poet Fabián O. Iriarte’s poems in The Confessions are often elegiac and grieving as he struggles to give meaning to the newly missing. However, this is not a book focused exclusively on loss but a broader collection on how one creates a life as a gay man artistically— a poet deep in conversation with other poets, artists, and, ultimately, the art of poetry.
For the North American reader new to Iriarte’s work, there are poems very much rooted in his home of Mar del Plata — its slang and culture — but they may be surprised by the globalization of queer culture found in his references, puns, and wordplay. There is nothing neutered or neutral — “but desire is always infinite, / it isn’t content with metaphors, drawings, always / desire persists.”
Translated by award-winning translator and author Lawrence Schimel and presented with the illustrations of zine artist Natalia Novia of Buenos Aires, The Confessions is the first full-length English translation of this singular voice of contemporary Argentinian poetry.
