Bronze medal winner of the International Latino Book Awards Best Poetry Anthology

A Scar Where Goodbyes Are Written is a bilingual anthology of poetry written by fifteen Venezuelan poets who are currently residing in Chile. Edited and translated by David M. Brunson, the volume encompasses the work of young poets coming from many different circumstances. Some have already published several books, while others have just begun their careers as writers. The vast majority of the original Spanish texts appeared in books, anthologies, and magazines across Chile, Venezuela, and elsewhere in the Hispanosphere.

In recent years, more than six million people have fled Venezuela in one of the world’s largest mass migrations, stemming in part from an ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by the country’s backsliding into authoritarianism, brutal political repression, corruption, food and medical shortages, violent crime, hyperinflation, and the mismanagement of Venezuela’s natural and financial resources, first by Hugo Chávez and presently by Nicolás Maduro.

Begun during Brunson’s travels in Chile amid the 2019–2020 protest movement, this dual-language collection aims to elevate the individual voices of each migrant poet, to connect them with new readers, and to enrich the body of literature available in English.

LSU Press

A Scar Where Goodbyes Are Written: An Anthology of Venezuelan Poets in Chile

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