Anamaría Crowe Serrano is an Irish poet, translator and editor born in Ireland to an Irish father and a Spanish mother. She grew up bilingually, straddling cultures. Her work has been published widely and anthologised in Ireland and abroad and encompasses translation of poetry and novels from Spanish and Italian into English, as well as her own poetry and prose work.  

Turas Press has published two of her books: 

  • In The Dark (2021), a historical novel set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.
  • Crunch (2018), a collection of experimental poetry which delves into the creation myth of Adam and Eve in the Garden – from the viewpoint of the apple…

Reviews and Reception

In The Dark was greatly praised for its unflinching and balanced exploration of the ambiguities, complexities and personal cost of war. It was longlisted for the 2022 Republic of Consciousness Prize.

Here are some reactions to In The Dark from other writers. 

“This novel does not carry a flag for any political creed, but only for the endurance of human kindness and human love in the face of unbearable cruelty.”

Paddy Woodworth

“This tells the story of how men all but destroy Spain during its Civil War but the women waiting at home hold the country’s jagged pieces together.”

Martina Devlin

“That all are victims of this war – as all are of any war – is but a portion of the wisdom within these pages, nor will readers need ask for whom the bell tolls at the end.” Anthony Glavin

“In The Dark reads like a polyphonic prose poem but don’t be fooled, this is a tense, psychological thriller. ” Mary Morrissy

In The Dark

“The novel is an ambitious mix of historical, conceptual and lyrical fiction which doesn’t disappoint. Language runs through it like light on deep water, ripples of Spanish breaking into a fragmentary, poetic narrative with shape-shifting points of view and philosophical searching.”

Ruth McKee, The Irish Times

“…the novel sinks its teeth into you – addressing the blinding nature of ideology, the tensions between sisters, and the weight of forbidden love.”

Carrie Callaghan, Historical Novel Review

Crunch

Keith Payne described Anamaría’s Turas Press collection Crunch as

An heroic tale, the core of that old telling of Eve and Adam, with all the elements of a great story: desire, conflict, retribution…In this ‘memory of the garden’ Anamaría Crowe Serrano takes a bite out of life with a taunting sequence of poems that are intelligent and visceral, ‘the fruit/in her smile/saying it all.’

In a Headstuff interview with David Toms, Anamaría discusses the inspiration and intent behind Crunch:

” Anamaría argues that we have to think in a new way about the story of Eve and the Apple. [She] takes the view that “transgression like that of Eve eating the apple isn’t always borne out of a need to rebel”, instead she thinks, “it can be about curiosity and exploration”. This exploratory element manifests itself in the poems by giving the apple agency and a voice: “I didn’t like that the apple was a passive thing, I gave it a witty voice, the apple is watching Eve”.

Visit our Reviews page for a response to Crunch in Poetry Ireland Review by Julie Morrissey

In 2018, Crunch was translated into Galician as Ñam by María Reimóndez. Ñam was published by Malinche Books and launched at the Poema Ria Festival,Vigo that year.  For copies of Ñam contact keith.payne@mac.com for copies.

For more reactions and comments on In The Dark, check out our Reviews page. 

More books and achievements

Amongst Anamaría’s twenty-plus publications are:   

  • The Big E a novel (Amazon Kindle, 2019)
  • KALEIDOgraph (corrupt press, 2017) a collaboration with the Greek poet Nina Karacosta.
  • OnWords and UpWords  (Shearsman, 2016),
  • one columbus leap (corrupt press, 2011),
  • Femispheres (Shearsman, 2008)
  • Paso Doble (Empiria, 2006) with the Italian poet Annamaria Ferramosca.

Her acclaimed works of translation include:

  • Beyond the Sea, by Mexican poet Elsa Cross (Shearsman Books, 2016)
  • Stone Green by Alberto Toni (Gradiva Publications, 2014)
  • Killing Pythagoras, (CreateSpace Independent, 2013) by Spanish novelist Marcus Chico

Her translations have won many prizes abroad and her own poetry has been anthologised in Census (Seven Towers), Landing Places (Dedalus), Pomeriggio (Leconte) and other publications. She was Translations editor for Colony Journal: www.colony.ie

Anamaría is the recipient of two awards from the Arts Council of Ireland to further her writing as well as funding from Culture Ireland for her attendance at the Poemaria festival in Vigo, Spain, 2018. 

For more feature articles and interview with and by Anamaría where she discusses her work, check out our Articles and Interviews page.

Browse http://anamariacs1.wix.com/amcs to learn more about Anamaría and her work.