Splendor - (Calico) by Sarah Coolidge (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Introducing readers to five trans and nonbinary poets Splendor is an ode to queer bodies, with previously unpublished translations from Argentina, Denmark, Korea, Norway, and Quebec. From the irreverent and irresponsible to the quiet and meditative these poems decentralize our ideas of trans experience and poetics.

Splendor presents a sliver of the wide possibilities of what trans literature can offer. This is trans literature that transcends borders and binaries in order to engaging with a messy world. As Camila Sosa Villada writes, "Let us keep loving one another in this swamp of contradictions."

Review Quotes

"I love this book, every page of it! We need more poetry, more celebration for trans lives between the bullets and bloodshed, which is also in here, the endless funerals of those taken down by heterosexual violence! When I started reading this collection, I could not stop and missed a meeting, but meetings can be rescheduled. What we cannot reschedule is the experience of reading a book without pause until it becomes your favorite anthology!"--CAConrad, author of First Light

Praise for the Calico series

"These Calico books are a total joy, both in form and in content. The books come in a curious trim size (or rather a couple curious trim sizes, although I think they've stabilized in their square format now after a few larger-sized volumes) that fits nicely in the hand and every single one of them promises a wealth of discovery for the internationally curious reader: Ukrainian poetry, Swahili fiction, queer Brazilian stories, Latin American horror, and so much more." --Literary Hub, "A Small Press Book We Love"

"The anthologies that Two Lines Press publishes are, for me, like those dessert trays where you can sample multiple delicacies at once and find that you love them all."--SFintranslation

"Unbelievably exciting... These are poems to read and reread, repeating the lines as though they were a secret between yourself and the page." --The Paris Review on Home: New Arabic Poems

"This eclectic bilingual anthology from queer Brazilian writers, both living and dead, is as expansive and full of life as the country itself...enticing and poignant." --Publishers Weekly on Cuíer: Queer Brazil

"Visible approaches translation as an act that occurs not only between languages but also between media and disciplines... Thoughtfully curated... Past and present come together in a refreshingly collaborative spirit." --Brooklyn Rail on Visible

"An absorbing sampler of the literary feast available in Africa's most widely spoken language, No Edges should leave readers eager to discover more Swahili writers." --Shailja Patel, author of Migritude, on No Edges

"For the women highlighted in this collection, the act of writing is one of critical defiance that gives voice to voiceless women and, further, engages in the creation of a redefined Caribbean femininity that defies patriarchal or colonial coercion... Elektrik is translation operating as good translation should: as a megaphone for writers who might otherwise remain unheard in the Western canon." --Barrelhouse magazine on Elektrik