Jean-Michel Espitallier

The Writers House is thrilled to bring Jean-Michel Espitallier to Philadelphia, in collaboration with Penn's French Institute for Culture and Technology. Much of his startling, innovative poetry has only recently been translated into English, and we are grateful to him, and to translators Sherry Brennan, Pascale-Anne Brault, Marcella Durand, and Michel Durand, for giving us permission to post these excerpts of Espitallier's work, in French and English, here on our website. Please click on the titles below, read and enjoy -- and join us for a reading and conversation with Espitallier on October 20, 2004!

"De la guerre civile" ("On Civil War"), from Le Theorem d'Espitallier, translated by Sherry Brennan

"L'axe du bien" ("The Axis of Good"), from En guerre, translated by Sherry Brennan and Pascale-Anne Brault

Excerpt from Le Theorem d'Espitallier, translated by Marcella Durand and Michel Durand (originally published in Belladonna Bilingue: Women's Work in Translation, Vol. I, eds. Rachel Levitsky, et. al. (Brooklyn, 2004)).