25:2 Autumn 1973

JOY KOGAWA

What Do I Remember of the Evacuation

While this retrospective issue has attempted to show some of the influences of literatures from around the world on new works written in English during the last fifty years, the issue has not drawn from the many translations Chicago Review has published over the years. Translated works have appeared in nearly every issue; they’ve also been featured in many special issues and sections. Greek poets, Italian futurists, Latin American writers, German writers, French New Philosophers, and contemporary European writers have all been treated at length in special sections over the years; more recently, the magazine has produced double issues on new writing from India and from the Pacific Rim. A special section on the art of translating poetry was published in the Autumn 1978 issue.

The Summer 1973 issue was designated an “Anthology of Modern Japanese Poets.” Translator Hiroaki Sato also noted that the issue was “introducing Joy Kogawa,” a Canadian poet who wrote in English and who had not received much attention in the US. Kogawa, who was born in Vancouver, was forcibly moved with her family into the interior of British Columbia during World War II. “What Do I Remember of the Evacuation” offers a meditation on that experience, as did her later book, Obasan (1981).

[DN, 1996]

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