Tavern Books has published the first of four volumes of The Fire’s Journey, by Eunice Odio, co-translated by NER contributors Keith Ekiss and Sonia P. Ticas and Mauricio Espinoza. Odio’s epic poem is available in English for the first time.

From Marjorie Agosín, author of The Light of Desire: “Bravo for this extraordinary, timely, and fearless translation of Eunice Odio, Costa Rica’s most distinguished poet. The Fire’s Journey is a singular, highly complex poem of creation, redemption, and personal spirituality. This translation is woven with a rare elegance, and Odio’s sacred voice is as compelling in English as it is in the original. A true achievement.”

Keith Ekiss is the author of Pima Road Notebook, released in 2010 by New Issues Poetry & Prose. His own poems have been published in Blackbird, Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Ekiss has received the Witter Bynner Poetry Translation Residency from the Santa Fe Art Institute and has been a Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at Stanford since 2007.

His poem “Landscape with Saguaros” appeared in NER 28.2. “Creation” and “Absence of Love,” works by Eunice Odio translated by Ekiss and Ticas, were published as part of NER’s translation issue (25.1 & 2).

The Fire’s Journey: Part I is available from Tavern Books and other booksellers.