An Invisible Geography by Nadine Pinede

(1 customer review)

$14.00

 

In this debut chapbook, Nadine Pinede traverses her own geographies of hope—from the glamour and grit of a Paris sidewalk that frames her parents’ first meeting; to the scarlet plumes of the Bastille Day parades of her birth; to the turbulent historical wealth and mortal devastation of her native Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Richly imaged and evocative, these are poems whose darkness is tempered with light. These are poems of a global citizen, who empathizes with the plight and struggle of her fellow beings, claims her identity and the integrity of her origins, and finds strength in all of our broken places.

–Carolyne Wright, Blue Lynx Prize, American Book Award; author Seasons of Mangoes & Brainfire

 

With great intimacy, Ms. Pinede masterfully crosses and illuminates cultural and racial boundaries. Hers are hopeful, lethal whispers.

–Cristina García, Guggenheim and Hodder Fellow; author Dreaming in Cuban and The Lesser Tragedy of Death

 

Nadine France Martine Pinede‘s is a beguiling, convincing, lyrical voice, a fresh addition to American speech and American poetry. We should all look forward to more from her.
–David Wagoner, former Chancellor of The American Academy of Poets, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize; author Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems.

 

These poems trace a landscape of scars—in the psyche from exile, in the flesh from surgery, in a tree from lightning, in the rubble of a Haitian city shattered by earthquake, in the face of a Madonna charred by fire, in the stone crosses of a monastery graveyard, in a stack of eyeglasses from concentration camp victims. The poet carries scars of her own, but she is more intent on recalling what others have suffered, especially those who’ve perished from cruelty or neglect. A bright thread of compassion runs from the first line to the last.

–Scott Russell Sanders, author Earth Works: Selected Essays

Rating:  ***** [5 of 5 Stars!]

 

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Description

An Invisible Geography

by Nadine Pinede

$14, paper

A chapbook of poems. Limited pressrun. Collector’s Item.

Nadine Pinede is a poet, author, editor, and translator. The daughter of Haitian immigrants who were forced into exile by dictatorship, she graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned her master’s from Oxford University, an MFA from the Whidbey Writers Workshop, and a PhD in Philosophy of Education with a minor in Philanthropic Studies from Indiana University. Her professional experience includes working with the American Refugee Committee and Grantmakers without Borders, where she co-led a delegation to Haiti to support the activist and Goldman Environmental Prize winner Chavannes Jean-Baptiste. Her grant writing funded a mentorship program for artists with disabilities and a multi-year summer camp on sustainable development. Nadine was also a speechwriter for the first Black president of a Big Ten university and for an HBCU chancellor and equity advocate who received the Drum Major for Justice award from President Obama.

Nadine is a CASE Periodical Award winner, Pushcart Prize nominee, and Hurston/Wright finalist, with fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Elizabeth George Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Hedgebrook, VONA, Ragdale, and the Brown Foundation. Her work appears in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat. Nadine’s chapter on the Haitian Revolution translated from French was published in the Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. Online, her work appears on NPR’s Poets Weave, the On Being blog, and in Resources for Race, Equity, and Inclusion on Diversebooks.org. Nadine is author of An Invisible Geography, a collection of poetry of place and exile, Sexism & Race, and Women in Film, selected for the SCBWI Recommended Reading List and nominated for a Crystal Kite Award. She has been a mentee for the Representation Matters Publishing Program and We Need Diverse Books, and she is a Poet Laureate for the Global Black Caucus.

1 review for An Invisible Geography by Nadine Pinede

  1. Henri Cus

    A fresh addition to American poetry. Poems whose darkness is tempered with light. Lethal whispers. A bright thread of compassion. Carolyne Wright, Cristina García, David Wagoner, and Scott Russell Sanders said it all. These are some of the most beautiful poems I have ever read.

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