Individual residencies / Olot
AK KAISER
From Monday, 15 January 2024 to Monday, 29 January 2024
Bio
Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, author of glint and NEA-awarded translator of Catalan, French and Spanish. AK~ is currently ready to publish her collection SHE/D, as well as her translation of Catalan poet Anna Gual’s work, Unnamable. In 2023, work has been supported by Millay Arts (NY), NES (Skagaströnd), Write On, Door County (WI) and la Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris). Recent poems, prose, translations, and photos in Amsterdam Quarterly, Circumference, Ginosko, Harvard Review, Hyperion, POETRY and Poetry International. AK~ has also participated in the Sant Jordi Festival 2020 and 2023, for the latter, with her translations of works by Anna Gual and Catalan urbanista and translator, Cebrià Montoliu. Bloom’s Day 2023, Anna and AK~ presented their work atat Trinity College Dublin. Her poem, “Astronaut, or Blues Singer” (glint, Milk & Cake Press) has been released into song by Mel.lif.lu.ous.
Project
tongue.s is an evolving collection of poems that reflect on language, languages, and our standard and idiosyncratic attempts at communication – of communing - with one another, all of us. Reaching beyond boundaries to other human beings, non-human beings, our innermost selves. Wonder, too! Eight muscles creating today’s 7,117 spoken human languages… speaking, singing, humming, stuttering, shouting. Whispering. An added pressure felt from the concerns of these treasures of biological, cultural and eco-systemic participation and contribution becoming extinct, as we speak. As a multi-lingual poet, translator, and scholar, I work with words. I would like to bring these topics alive in this collection. tongue.s is a both a trajectory and a culmination of certain reflections, currents and undercurrents in my life and work. I would take full advantage of being at Olot in Catalunya for developing community, and devoting time to reflection and creation, to go deeper and broader, in short, to where I need to go to evolve quality.
I came to Faberllull Olot to work on what will be my third poetry collection, tongue.s. From the very first evening, following dinner with the other residents, I had ideas! In fact, a whole section of the collection opened up before me and, in such a both socially and work[1]friendly environment, I gathered and drafted the personal experiences which would serve this section.
At Faberllull Olot, I also had time, and quiet, to reflect on the overall collection. Conversations with the other residents—we were a group coming from diverse practices—were enlightening for this clarification, as well as for much more.
Additionally, Olot is a treasure of natural beauty and culture and I also made a point of hiking its trails and volcanoes and getting to know a bit of its history, museums, and current vibrant cultural life and gathering spots. Interaction with the greater Olot community, both informally, and via my presentation on my translation work, particularly of Catalan poet, Anna Gual, was further enriching.
