There Was No Plot
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There were neither plots nor characters,
only places. Neighborhoods sliced
in half. Terraces and corridors
between roofless rooms. Profiles only.
Staggered
spaces. Far off a group
was sucked up
into its own restlessness: the after-dinner
conversation, the waiting, shuffle between
one door and another, shifts
in posture; remarks that from here,
where you hurried to leave,
were already beyond hearing.
Translation from the Spanish

Coral Bracho’s (b. 1951) early work altered the landscape of Mexican poetry. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Aguascalientes National Poetry Prize, Xavier Villaurrutia Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Bracho has collaborated with several painters and is a member of Mexico’s National Organization of Artists.

Forrest Gander, born in the Mojave Desert, lives in California. A translator and multigenre writer with degrees in geology and literature, he’s the recipient of numerous awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize and the Best Translated Book Award. His most recent title is Twice Alive.
More Poetry
Autumn 2019
World Literature Today’s autumn issue celebrates U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo with poems and an interview inside, and the cover feature devoted to Literary Activism commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Alcatraz occupation that began in November 1969, guest-edited by Allison Hedge Coke. As always, a generous selection of book reviews and other features round out the issue.
Table of Contents
In Every Issue
Interviews
Essays
Poetry
Fiction
Literary Activism