From Unknown to Unknown by Manuel Rivas

From Unknown to Unknown by Manuel Rivas

In 2003 the Galician writer Manuel Rivas, well known for his novels The Carpenter's Pencil and Books Burn Badly, published in his native Galician language his collected poems, five books of poetry and a selection of recent poems, under the title Do descoNecido ao descoNecido (From Unknown to Unknown). This anthology in English, From Unknown to Unknown, gathers together eighty of those poems and is introduced by the Scottish writer John Burnside, winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize, who writes, 'Again and again, as we listen to the account Rivas gives of the world, we come across the beautiful surprise, the breathtaking renewal of some process or way of seeing we normally take for granted. It is an enormous privilege to have this selection of poems in this attentive and imaginative translation. Here is an essential poet whose work illuminates the world and the condition of those who live it.' This English edition was first published in 2009 and is now reprinted.

Manuel Rivas writes in Galician, a north-western Spanish language. He is a notable figure in Spanish writing, known for his journalism as well as his prize-winning short tales and novels, including the internationally acclaimed The Carpenter's Pencil. He is a founding member of Greenpeace Spain. Twenty languages have been used to translate his works.