Translated by Janusz Solarz

Alicia Elsbeth Stallings

excerpt from the recommendation:

A.E. Stallings is recognised as a master of traditional poetic forms such as the sonnet, villanelle, triolet, and ghazal. Critics regard her as a leading figure in the New Formalism movement. However, her playful use of the idiom, clever rhyme schemes, and fascination with the sonic aspects of language are not mere exercises in form. Her verse delves into meaningful themes, drawing inspiration from ancient cultural traditions and the sources of Anglo-Saxon poetry.

 

 

Alicia Elsbeth Stallings

ALICIA ELSBETH STALLINGS (b. 1968) is an American poet and translator who lived in Greece for many years and now resides in the United Kingdom Her debut poetry collection, Archaic Smile (1998), was critically acclaimed and won the prestigious Richard Wilbur Award. Subsequent volumes, all recognised in renowned competitions and rankings, were published in 2006, 2012, and 2018. Her poems have been featured in The Best American Poetry anthologies in 1994, 2000, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Stallings is a regular contributor to Poetry magazine and The Times Literary Supplement. She is also an award-winning translator of classical Greek texts, including works by Lucretius and Hesiod. In 2023, as the second woman in history, she was elected to the prestigious position of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.

Janusz Solarz

A graduate of English philology from Jagiellonian University (1983), JANUSZ SOLARZ pursued postgraduate studies at several American universities (Syracuse University, New York University, and Columbia University) and later taught in the US at the Juilliard Conservatory in New York and Indiana University in Bloomington. In 2009, he began translating works by American poets into Polish, publishing his translations on platforms such as Salon Literacki and Babiniec Literacki. In 2021, his three-volume edition of the Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by Zaułek Literacki Pomyłka. As a poet, Solarz has published three collections of his own: 47 Sonnenizio (2019), Dziecinada (Child’s Play, 2020), and Ze szpalt (From the Columns, 2022), all of which were nominated for the Orpheus Award.