Without Anesthesia: New and Selected Poems
Aleš Debeljak

Writing through wars, genocide, and political upheaval, Aleš Debeljak is a poet of Slovenia, of Europe, and of the West. Courtly yet elusive, his writing, in its variety of shapes and forms, presents a contemporary world that relentlessly sweeps us up in its currents, depicting its residual traumas and surprising pleasures with aplomb. 

“[A poet] sensitive to the enormity and complexity of our historical and intellectual predicament.”—Charles Simic

“‘Language can't compete with silence,’ Aleš Debeljak tells us. Wrong. His can. Both the silences and the language of his poetry decapitated me when I first encountered it; it determined and renewed my writing. English-speakers who encounter these perfect translations will surely experience what I experienced. Debeljak's poetry is like silk, like thunder.”
—Tomaž Šalamun

Aleš Debeljak (1961-2016) was the author of thirteen books of essays and nine volumes of poetry. He won numerous awards, including the Prešeren Foundation Prize (Tel Aviv), and taught at universities throughout Europe and the United States. He lived in Slovenia, where he was a professor of cultural studies at the University of Ljuljana.

Paperback / $20.00 (Can 23.00) / ISBN 978-0-89255-365-5 / 178 pages / Poetry

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