News News: Publication of The Poems of Renata Ferreira by Frank X. Gaspar

Tagus Press, the publishing arm of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, announces the publication of The Poems of Renata Ferreira by Frank X. Gaspar.

Tagus Press, the publishing arm of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, announces the publication of The Poems of Renata Ferreira by Frank X. Gaspar.

Renata Ferreira’s poems were composed in the final years of Portugal’s fascist regime, exposing and subverting the government’s draconian edicts against women’s rights, sexual freedoms, political dissent, and progressive thought. She worked in the resistance passing hand-typed bulletins and banned literature throughout Lisbon, yet her poetry is unmistakably ardent, tender, fraught, erotic, and Sapphic. Presenting the poems of this Portuguese-American writer and detailing their surprising rediscovery in 2015, Frank X. Gaspar fuses genres, outs borders, and brings to life a voice that had been silenced. As his inventive narrative unfolds, Ferreira emerges, whole and mysterious, offering up her history, her passions, and her art.

“A fascinating saga weaving desire and memory, war and beauty, lies, truth, and the persistence of art. Fernando Pessoa and José Saramago are certainly among Gaspar’s kindred writers, but I’m also reminded of Lawrence Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet —I feel that same total immersion. I’m swept away. The Poems of Renata Ferreira is gorgeous and witty, wildly smart—even the end notes are pure poetry!”—Ellen Bass

The author of five poetry collections and two novels, Frank X. Gaspar’s work has appeared widely in magazines and literary journals, such as The Nation, The New Yorker, The Harvard Review, The American Poetry Review, and others. He has held the Hélio and Amélia Pedrosa/Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) Endowed Chair in Portuguese Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and currently teaches in the Graduate Writing Program at Pacific University, Oregon. His poem “Quahogs” was recently featured on the New Yorker’s Poetry Podcast (https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/poetry/ellen-bass-reads-frank-x-gaspar).

The Poems of Renata Ferreira is volume 26 of the Portuguese in the Americas Series, edited by Christopher Larkosh (UMass Dartmouth).

To purchase The Poems of Renata Ferreira, please visit the University of Massachusetts Press website by clicking here. The book can also be purchased on Amazon by clicking here.

For more information, please contact Mario Pereira, Executive Editor, at mpereira6@umassd.edu.