Roberto Echavarren has several prize-winning books of poetry to his credit, most recently The Espresso between Sleep and Wakefulness and Centralasia. Rooted in both surrealism and contra-constructivist practices, it employs both dislocation and disjunctive series. A native of Uruguay and professor of world literature, long associated with New York University, he is the co-editor, along with José Kozer and Jacobo Sefamí of Medusario: muestra de poesía Latinoamericana (Medusario: A Survey of Latin-American Poetry), the leading anthology of poetry in the Neo-Baroque style. Echavarren’s critical prose addresses the distinctive characteristics of innovative Latin-American poetry.

Donald Wellman is a poet and translator, and as the editor of O.ARS he produced a series of anthologies including the titles Coherence and Translations: Experiments in Reading. Author of the poetry collections Roman Exercises, The Cranberry Island Series, A North Atlantic Wall, and Prolog Pages, Wellman’s translations include Antonio Gamoneda’s Gravestones and Description of the Lie, Emilio Prados’ Enclosed Garden, and Yvan Goll’s Neila, Evening Song: Last Poems of Yvan Goll.

Roberto Echavarren writes riffs in a style that might be called “gonzogongorism.” He is fast and funny, cool, catchy and cruel. If you stick with him, you’ll become unstuck, but you’ll end up knowing more about yourself and what may be happening to you. –JOHN ASHBERY