Tierra de noches inmensas
Belén Atienza

Tierra de noches inmensas is the debut poetry collection by the Spanish writer Belén Atienza. A powerful debut and a dazzling sample of contemporary Spanish poetry.

Speaking from the music and exuberance of the oral and poetic tradition of her Andalusian ancestors, Belén takes us through her life experiences and visions: the postwar Spain, a dark land; her deep Andalusian roots, extended to her from her grandmother and her mother; the discrimination she suffered, in Spain itself, because of those roots; her life in the United States, a Babilonia donde todo se paga; her loves, which she sings with passion and a fine eroticism, and her heartbreaks, gray and cold memories; the creation of herself, beginning with the word—the word of poetry: Porque quiero seguir siendo una/ solo una/ (…) que mi rostro no sea reflejo de otro rostro/ ni rastro de otra vida ni otra historia.

Also, the collection, published in El Salvador, establishes a dialogue with the themes and problems of this Central American country: the postwar period, still making the land bleed; the reconstruction of historical and familiar memories; the word of women in feminist struggles.

In this way, Tierra de noches inmensas is a book as wide as life, in which readers can recognize themselves in a great number of facets, and think themselves again, re-create themselves, from the deep force of poetry. Here are words that can speak to many and bring them back to the things we are thirsty for: roots, love, immensity.

Belén Atienza (Badalona, Spain) teaches Spanish literature and history at Clark University (Massachusetts). She is the author of the poetry chapbook Mi tierra es una lengua, the book of short stories Saltaparedes, and the essay El loco en el espejo: Locura y melancolía en la España de Lope de Vega. Her work has been featured in Letralia, Revista Hispano Cubana HC, Rattle, and Poetry East/West. Her poems have been translated into English and Chinese.

Tierra de noches inmensas is a publication by Índole Editores. Click to purchase here.

Reviewed by
Mario Zetino
2/1/2021

Mario Zetino is a Salvadoran Poet. He is a researcher at the Universidad Dr José Matías Delgado, in El Salvador. He has published the poetry collection Uno dice and Los caballos dorados. He has been an editor of La Piscucha Magazine, and has translated Salvadoran-American poets to Spanish. 

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