It Must be a Misunderstanding: New and Selected Poems By Coral Bracho, translated by Forrest Gander

The influential Mexican poet turned 70 last year, and this introduction to her work is beautifully translated by Forrest Gander, himself a leading US poet. There’s a sense of deep play: “Right in the middle of what I want to say / there’s a long row of chairs.” Yet when this image turns out to be conjuring the confusions of terminal illness, we switch from picturing kindergartens to clinic waiting rooms. Bracho’s unusual images are profoundly illuminating, and her gift is to bend them to make us think.