The Farewell Light

<p>Arrowsmith Press is honored to announce the publication of Nidia Hernández's first collection of poems<em> The Farewell Light.</em> This bilingual edition leaps effortlessly between the natural world and meditations on culture family language and longing. Herna?ndez's work moves the reader beyond the realm of the individual poet toward a deeper human understanding: I cried until I was water/ until I was sea/ and I began to swim/ toward the depths. A recent Venezuelan immigrant to America Herna?ndez bridges the gulf between her two countries as she laments What I thought lost/ is in the light of this dawn/ I'm not alone/ emptiness is only emptiness/ the sea speaks to me. Herna?ndez's self-possessed poetic voice reflects her decades of engagement with poetry across languages and continents pointing out that if not understanding each other is the constant/ why should not speaking the same language/ have to be a disaster? Brilliantly rendered from the Spanish by esteemed translator Rowena Hill <em>The Farewell Light</em> is a debut not to be missed.</p>