Aurélia Lassaque - Guest Editor ISSUE XXVIII
Aurélia Lassaque is bilingual poet in French and Occitan. She has dedicated her doctoral dissertation to Occitan theater from the XVIIth Century. Nowadays, endangered, Occitan is still spoken in Southern France, in Val d’Aran (Spain) and in few Italian valleys in Piedmont.
Interested in the interaction between various forms of art, she often cooperates with visual artists, videomakers, dancers and particularly musicians. She accompanies her readings with short songs from the Occitan folklore tradition.
She has performed all over the world, in Europe, Latin America, North Africa, Scandinavian countries, Indonesia and India. She is an active advocate of linguistic diversity and acts as literary advisor for the "Paroles Indigo" festival in France, Ivory Coast and Tunisia and for the “Premio Ostana Scritture in Lingua Madre” in Italy.
Aurélia Lassaque’s poetry collection Pour que chantent les salamandres, Editions Bruno Doucey, has been translated in English, Dutch, Norwegian, Hebrew, Catalan and received critical attention by, among others, The Guardian, the literary supplement of Al Araby Al Jadeed and Haaretz Daily. In addition to which her poems have appeared in translation in numerous magazines and anthologies.
Her last poetry book, En quête d’un visage, went out in May 2107 at Editions Bruno Doucey. In this collection, Aurélia Lassaque revisits the myth of the Odyssey, giving voice to Ulysses and an unnamed woman called « She ». In the form of a dialogue in eight “cantos”, the poet evokes the ancient Greek theatrical form to explore the frontiers between theater and poetry. The collection has received significant critical attention in France and the translator Madeleine Campbell has been sponsored by the Emerging Translator Mentorship Program of the American Literary Translators Association to complete its translation into English.
Interested in the interaction between various forms of art, she often cooperates with visual artists, videomakers, dancers and particularly musicians. She accompanies her readings with short songs from the Occitan folklore tradition.
She has performed all over the world, in Europe, Latin America, North Africa, Scandinavian countries, Indonesia and India. She is an active advocate of linguistic diversity and acts as literary advisor for the "Paroles Indigo" festival in France, Ivory Coast and Tunisia and for the “Premio Ostana Scritture in Lingua Madre” in Italy.
Aurélia Lassaque’s poetry collection Pour que chantent les salamandres, Editions Bruno Doucey, has been translated in English, Dutch, Norwegian, Hebrew, Catalan and received critical attention by, among others, The Guardian, the literary supplement of Al Araby Al Jadeed and Haaretz Daily. In addition to which her poems have appeared in translation in numerous magazines and anthologies.
Her last poetry book, En quête d’un visage, went out in May 2107 at Editions Bruno Doucey. In this collection, Aurélia Lassaque revisits the myth of the Odyssey, giving voice to Ulysses and an unnamed woman called « She ». In the form of a dialogue in eight “cantos”, the poet evokes the ancient Greek theatrical form to explore the frontiers between theater and poetry. The collection has received significant critical attention in France and the translator Madeleine Campbell has been sponsored by the Emerging Translator Mentorship Program of the American Literary Translators Association to complete its translation into English.
