Spiral Staircase: Collected Poems by Renkichi Hirato

Description

Translated from the Japanese by Sho Sugita (Ugly Duckling Presse, paperback)

Publication Date: February 1, 2017

Publisher Marketing: Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. Finalist for the 2018 Best Translated Book Award. Once called “the Marinetti of Japan” by David Burliuk, Hirato Renkichi produced a unique brand of Futurism from the late 1910s and early 1920s through poetry, criticism, and guerrilla performance. Contributing to the earliest productions of Japanese avant–garde poetry, his aggressive experimentation with speed, spatialization, and performability would later influence what became a lively community of Dadaist and Surrealist writers in pre–war Japan. SPIRAL STAIRCASE is the first definitive volume of Renkichi’s poems to appear in English.

With an introduction by Sho Sugita and an afterword by Eric Selland.
“Sho Sugita must be thanked for bringing attention to Hirato Renkichi, for gathering such a generous amount of this forgotten poet’s writing, and for providing translations that preserve the author’s linguistic feats.”—John Bradley, Rain Raxi

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