A Celebration of Diversity in Storytelling and Poetry since 2015
. The work seeks to explore the myth of Narcissus and Echo contiguously alongside ideas of modernity, capitalism and the self. The myth, from Book III of Ovid’s Metamorphoses begins with Hera who, in a fit of rage, put a curse on Echo saying “Your voice will be more brief, my dear! You will always have the last word - but never the first”.
Mariana Enriquez has done something remarkable in this story, totally in line with the fabulist tradition in Latin American literature. She has created a second-order community of ghosts for this poor, benighted region. The social despair of the place manifests itself in ectoplasm.
When we arrive at the third part of "Trust": "A Memoir, Remembered" by Ida Partenza, it felt like a glacier being cracked open.
"Austral" is an enigma factory.
But screw the politics. Just enjoy everything.