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In this, her eleventh, volume of poetry, Maurya Simon is working at the pinnacle of her powers as she spins a modern myth with ancient underpinnings. Drawing from European, Latin American, and Asian stories of creaturely transformation, Simon tells the luminous tale of a shapeshifting teenager, Melusina, who moves into adulthood and encounters for the first time the worldly dramas of love, betrayal, and an arduous rebirth. Her journey entails not only physical and emotional transformations, but also psychological, erotic, and spiritual empowerment.
Employing musically lush language, showcasing vivid scenery and gorgeous imagery, and animating a group of evocative characters, this novella tells an unusual coming of age story that’s as original as it is unforgettable.
Praise for La Sirena, A Novella in Verse:
“This sensual, passionate “novella in verse” has me swooning. Simon has gifted us with a truly fresh take on mermaid myths, drawn from across cultures, hybridizing and unifying them into a vivid tale for our time. The poems spin a beautifully imagined story, rich in particulars, that explores otherness, the allure of the sea, female power, the body, love, eroticism, destiny, family, language, voice and voicelessness (I’ll stop listing themes, but there’s so much more!) with a luscious grace. Simon’s mermaid has real strength and agency! She owns a harpoon! As we follow her coming of age, ecstasies, sufferings, and transformations we dive deep into a timeless archetype that’s magical, redemptive, and replete with spiritual meaning.”-Amy Gerstler, author of Index of Women
“Wherever we grow up is a mythic place. If that place is beside the Pacific Ocean, among sandy little beach towns, like the towns of L.A.’s South Bay, it is still numinous and profound in memory. Growing up there, the speaker of these poems knew herself and her sister to be magical sea creatures, mermaids. Much here confirms that fantasy, much reminds us they were simply human children, lucky to be in a place where they could dream. The beauty of Maurya Simon’s new book, with its lush textures and depths of language, is like an immersion in myth made fact.”-Mark Jarman, author of Zeno’s Eternity
“From the oceanic imagination of Maurya Simon comes this luscious world of desire rushing in blue veins, surging in foam and surf, creating every being. Simon charts the perilous journeys we face as we become who we must become. To find our way, we create and embrace mythos within families, cultures, religions, the magical words we need as we suffer and exalt and transform. The high drama of girls turning into women, the painful spiritual and physical growth of mermaids, the dangers of departure and return—these marvelous siren songs lure us into the depths.”-Peggy Shumaker, author of Cairn
“Maurya Simon’s La Sirena: A Novella in Verse is more than a fanciful tour-de-force. It re-imagines the ethos of Southern California and the blithe companionship of two teen sisters in a lathering foam of magical realism, transporting the mundane into the chimeric, the everyday into whimsical sublimity. It is not only a joy to read, but the gift of a literary journey as though upon a green float of speckled glass riding waves that comb the shore of the nearly real into a gentle harbor of charm.”-Garrett Hongo, author of Coral Road