To Build My Shadow a Fire: The Poetry and Translations of David Wevill (New Odyssey)

This collection showcases the creative range and essential writing of David Wevill, an elusive and enigmatic poetic figure. His work shines among a generation of post-war poets known for their literary invention, dissemination of poetry in translation, political witness, and obsession with the image. Wevill is a careful observer of the details of life both as pilgrim and exile. A Canadian born in Japan, Wevill was educated in England, and lived in Burma and Spain before he moved to Austin, Texas, where he has spent over 40 years as a writer, translator, teacher, and editor. These selections were chosen from more than one thousand pages of published work largely unknown in the U.S. and invite further exploration and discovery of this gifted writer.