Alejandra Pizarnik - Biography

Alejandra Pizarnik (April 29, 1936 - September 25, 1972) was an Argentine poet.

Life and work

She was born on April 29, 1936 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in Avellaneda, a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A year after entering the department of Philosophy and Letters at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pizarnik published her first book of poetry, La tierra más ajena (1955). Soon after, she studied painting with Juan Batlle Planas. Pizarnik followed her debut work with two more volumes of poems, La última inocencia (1956) and Las aventuras perdidas (1958).

From 1960 to 1964 Pizarnik lived in Paris. There she worked for the journal Cuadernos, sat on the editorial board of the magazine Les Lettres Nouvelles, and participated in the Parisian literary world. Pizarnik also attended a variety of courses at the Sorbonne, including contemporary French Literature.

She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1968, and in 1971 a Fulbright Scholarship.

She died in Buenos Aires of a self-induced overdose of seconal.

Books

• The Land Far Beyond(La tierra más ajena) (1955)
• The Last Innoncence (La última inocencia, 1956)
• The Lost Adventures (Las aventuras perdidas,1958)
• The Tree of Diana (Árbol de Diana, 1962)
• The Works and the Nights (Los trabajos y las noches, 1965)
• The Extraction of the Stone of Madness(Extracción de la piedra de locura) (1968)
• The Musical Hell(El infierno musical) (1971)
• The Bloody Countess(La condesa sangrienta) (1971)

Further reading

• "Unmothered Americas: Poetry and universality, Charles Simic, Alejandra Pizarnik, Giannina Braschi", Jaime Rodriguez Matos, dissertaion, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY; Faculty Advisor: Gustavo Perez-Firmat, 2005.
• “The Sadean Poetics of Solitude in Paz and Pizarnik.” Latin American Literary Review / Rolando Pérez, 2005
• Review: Art & Literature of the Americas: The 40th anniversary Edition", featuring Alejandra Pizarnik, Christina Peri Rossi, Octavio Paz, Giannina Braschi," edited by Doris Sommer and Tess O'Dwyer, 2006.
• "Arbol de Alejandra: Pizarnik Reassessed," (monograph) by Karl Posso and Fiona J. Mackintosh, 2007.
• These are Not Sweet Girls featuring Alejandra Pizarnik, Giannina Braschi, Marjorie Agosin, and Julia Alvarez," White Pine Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1877727382
• "La Disolucion En La Obra de Alejandra Pizarnik: Ensombrecimiento de La Existencia y Ocultamiento del Ser," by Ana Maria Rodriguez Francia, 2003.

External links

• ODP Directory of Pizarnik's sites (English)
• CVC.Alejandra Pizarnik (Spanish)
• Alejandra Pizarnik (English)
• "Being Here" Center for the Art of Translation Web Exclusive Content, Translated by Adam Giannelli (English)