{"id":16056,"date":"2026-01-02T20:15:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T02:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/?post_type=product&p=16056"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:50:29","slug":"last-return-to-eden","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.lavenderink.org\/site\/shop\/last-return-to-eden\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Return to Eden and Other Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sonia Manzano<\/a><\/h2>\n

Translated by Alexis Levitin<\/a><\/h3>\n

Last Return to Eden and Other Poems<\/h3>\n

ISBN:\u00a0 978-1-956921-65-6 (pbk.)
\n(January, 2026)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

In this collection of daring poems, famed Ecuadorian writer Sonia Manzano, in her first full-length English translation, weaves together materials from Genesis, The Odyssey, and modern cinema, though her major inspiration clearly springs from two admired predecessors: Walt Whitman and Sappho. Whitman, the American bard of freedom, often appears as her Vergil, her guide, while Sappho, who passionately merged Eros and Thanatos, is her constant inspiration.<\/p>\n

\n

It is truly a revelation to have these powerful, often surrealistic, and wonderfully allusive poems by Sonia Manzano in a superb English translation by Alexis Levitin. Manzano\u2019s poems are filled with imagery that sears to the soul\u2014it\u2019s a book that remains, reading after reading, hot to the touch.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ed Folsom, long-time editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review <\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sonia Manzano is a poet, and her suffering is a lyric. Alexis Levitin\u2019s translation gets this right; it\u2019s clean and clear, like her starkly concrete images, the meat of her \u201cfossilized violin of desire.\u201d Like the original, this translation unveils a slow triumph of will\u2014the lyric \u201cgoes on playing.\u201d Our luck that English is the instrument!<\/p>\n

\u2014Peter Thompson, translator of Fernando Arrabal\u2019s Letter To General Franco <\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alexis Levitin\u2019s translation of Sonia Manzano\u2019s eight-part poetic suite \u201cAh Time\u201d is heart-rending and enlightening\u2014the poet\u2019s appeal to current and future generations, meditating on the poet\u2019s life, past and present racial and social injustices, police brutality, and misogyny. The sequence closes with the poet\u2019s moving recognition of her fleeting time, the enduring nature of senseless suffering, and the fight that must go on, while she repeats this generation\u2019s most poignant cry for help and call to action: George Floyd\u2019s \u201cI can\u2019t breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Adam Vines, Editor of Birmingham Poetry Review<\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sonia Manzano<\/a>
\n9781956921656
\n\u201c… [A] moving recognition of her fleeting time, the enduring nature of senseless suffering, and the fight that must go on, while she repeats this generation\u2019s most poignant cry for help and call to action: George Floyd\u2019s \u201cI can\u2019t breathe.\u201d \u2014Adam Vines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[236,17],"product_tag":[132,283,130,18,383,518,30,503],"class_list":{"0":"post-16056","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-books","7":"product_cat-dialogos","8":"product_tag-alexis-levitin","9":"product_tag-bilingual","10":"product_tag-ecuador","11":"product_tag-poetry","12":"product_tag-poetry-translation","13":"product_tag-sonia-manzano","14":"product_tag-spanish","15":"product_tag-wit","17":"first","18":"instock","19":"featured","20":"taxable","21":"shipping-taxable","22":"purchasable","23":"product-type-simple","24":"berocket_lgv_grid","25":"berocket_lgv_list_grid"},"yoast_head":"\nLast Return to Eden and Other Poems by Sonia Manzano from Lavender Ink \/ Di\u00e1logos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this collection of daring poems, famed Ecuadorian writer Sonia Manzano, in her first full-length English translation, weaves together materials from Genesis, The Odyssey, and modern cinema, though her major inspiration clearly springs from two admired predecessors: Walt Whitman and Sappho. 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