Úrsula Starke

Úrsula Starke (b. 1983) began writing and publishing poetry as a teenager. Her main literary influences include Chilean poets Gabriela Mistral and Winétt de Rokha as well as Uruguayan poet Juana de Ibarbourou. Much of her work revolves around the themes of loss, both personal (in poetry inspired by the deaths of family members from cancer and Starke’s own struggles with mental illness) and collective (in the historical trauma of the Pinochet dictatorship). Taking a surrealist, neobaroque approach, Starke’s poetry ventures from intense realism into the fantastic, drawing on Roman Catholic imagery and a vast knowledge of history to create a mythology that transports its readers elsewhere while illuminating harsh realities at home. Wisteria is a compilation of the four books she published between 2000 and 2020.