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December 1999 |
The Anchored Angel: Selected Writings by José
Garcia Villa Edited by Eileen Tabios With a foreword by Jessica Hagedorn Book Description . About the Author and Editor . Excerpt . Reviews . Events . Buy Books Now |
| The Anchored Angel: Selected Writings by José Garcia Villa reintroduces
the work of the celebrated writer to the United States. At the height of his career,
Villaís writings earned him prizes, fellowships, and lavish praise from some of the
greatest literary luminaries of the day. Yet his work has been out of the public
eye for more than thirty years and out of print for more than ffteen. Although named
a National Artist in the Philippines where he was born, Villa remains largely unknown
in the United States today. Kayaís republication of Villaís writings both recovers and rediscovers the work of this ferce iconoclast for a new generation. Included are reprints of his major poems and representatives from each of his signifcant experiments, as well as short stories and nonfction work. Edited by acclaimed author of Black Lightning: Poetry-in-Progress, Eileen Tabios, Kayaís collection includes essays by contemporary Filipino and Filipino American writers Luis Cabalquinto, Nick Carbó, Jonathan Chua, Luis Francia, Nick Joaquin, E. San Juan, and Alfred Yuson, and a foreword by Jessica Hagedorn. Praise for The Anchored Angel and José Garcia Villa: "The Anchored Angel is a marvelous reintroduction to the work of one of the greatest pioneers of Asian American literature. For José Garcia Villa was our bitter, narcissistic angel of both late Modernism and early post-colonialism, an inventive, luminous intelligence full of sweet song and possessed of an unforgettably unique, bilious presenceóa legend. Like the César Vallejo of Trilce, Villa could be abstract, elusive, eccentric, yet capable of a lyric passion so intense, both heart and throat ache to intone his strophes. Born in the Philippines and long a resident of New York City, Villa stood for the repudiation of parochial identities and literary canons, and, from the sanctuary of his own salonñfrequented by many young Filipino American poets during times of fervent cultural nationalism and liberal multiculturalismñhe maintained a trenchant metropolitanism. Editor Eileen Tabios and the contributing essayists have accomplished a literay treasure, an archive, and a clear-eyed act of literary homage to an important figure in twentieth-century world poetry." — Garrett Hongo, author of Volcano: A Memoir of Hawai'i "To say of José Garcia Villa that he made English 'strange' to native English speakersóas Jean Paul Sartre once said of Frantz Fanon and Frenchóis no extravagant claim. Unlike Fanon, Villa hungrily embraced colonial culture even as, like Fanon, Villa sought to transform its impositions into highly novel, even unrecognizable, verbal artifacts and art forms. This volume is bound to dramatically recast our considerations of American modernism, Asian and Filipino American literary history, and the rise of 'englishes' in colonial and postcolonial studies. Anyone interested in the least-understood cultural underside of the U.S. colonization of the Philippines or in the colonial aspect of American cultural assimilationism would do well to read and enjoy this book. I hail it as a major event." — Oscar V. Campomanes, University of California, San Diego "The Anchored Angel, in all its/his complicated glory and gritty splendor, is fnally reborn." — Jessica Hagedorn, from the foreword "Villa, brought back into print, interrupts our current assumptions, and particularly our assumptions about poetry, by insisting on a spiritual vigilance that seeks its own tone and form. His experiments with rhyme, momentum, and the pause as lyric elements demand and heighten a readerís attention and intelligence. For this writer, poetry may have been a kind of worship, both exacting and exhilarating. Yet he was also a dissenter whose precision is itself a version of abandon. Though new to some of us, Villa seems a member of a familiar and enveloping clan whose other kin include Hopkins and Dickinson, Moore and Stein." — Molly McQuade, author of Stealing Glimpses "This fne selection of José Garcia Villaís poetry and stories introduces us to a fery modernist poet whose work delights and astounds. Critical essays on his writing further delve into this uniquely experimental/spiritual author, providing a vibrantly complex picture of the poet in action. However, Villa was not always larger than life. Witty and imperious, moody and penetrating, acerbic and outrageous, he also possessed enormous capacity for intimacy and generosity. He was a joy to be with when his Famboyance found its free range. The Anchored Angel re-establishes Villaís incandescent genius in the contemporary consciousness. His work remains constant as literature of enduring beauty." — Yukihide Maeshima Hartman, author of A Coloring Book "The study of José Garcia Villaís works is the study of the relationship between the Philippine and American literary canonsóall the more relevant for Filipino and Filipino American writers in the coming turn of the century, as we slip out of our centennial mode and come out into the world with greater expectations and demands. Villa always made demands, even when it was hardly possible to do so. He represents the early coming of age of the Americanized Philippines and of the Filipino immigrant in America. Now, in our maturity, Filipinos ask him again: 'who are you?' The answer, I hope, creates a room for Villa in our selective memoriesóbecause to him, we owe much, and from him, we can learn even more." — Bino A. Realuyo, author of The Umbrella Country "Mr. Villa seems to me to possess one of the purest and most natural gifts discoverable anywhere in contemporary poetry. This accounts for his power to say, quietly, the most astonishing and exalted things." — Mark Van Doren "Depth is not the fashion, and even the well-disposed reader may startle at certain paradoxical avowals in these bravely deep poems by José Garcia Villa. A new poet, ëa young native from the Philippines,í this author; and his work is for the most part new to print, but fnal wisdom encountered in poem after poem merely serves to emphasize the disparity between tumult and stature." — Marianne Moore, from a review of Have Come, Am Here "and i am alive to see a man against the skyó" — e. e. cummings "A poet with a great, even an astonishing, and perfectly original gift." — Dame Edith Sitwell |
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