… the most significant Surrealist poet to emerge from 1950s Paris… with two forthcoming English translations of prose in 2026.
“You know very well, Joyce, that you are for me–and very objectively too–the greatest poet of our time. Surrealist poetry, that’s you.”–André Breton
Joyce Mansour, a Syrian Jewish exile from Egypt, was 25 years old when she published her first book in Paris in 1953. Her fierce, macabre, erotically charged works caught the eye of André Breton, who welcomed her into his Surrealist group and became her lifelong friend and ally. Despite her success in surrealist circles, her books received scant attention from the literary establishment, which is hardly surprising since Mansour’s favorite topics happened to be two of society’s greatest fears: death and unfettered female desire.
Now, over half a century later, Mansour’s time has come. Acclaimed translation, Emerald Wounds (2023) launched the English world’s rediscovery of Joyce Mansour. Nominated for the 2024 Griffin Poetry Prize, it collects her most important works of poetry, spanning the entire arc of her career, from the gothic, minimalist fragments of her first published work to the serpentine power of her poems of the 1980s. In these fresh new translations, Mansour’s voice surges forth uncensored and raw, communicating the frustrations, anger, and sadness of an intelligent, worldly woman who defies the constraints and oppression of a male-dominated society. Following in its footsteps, In the Glittering Maw (2024), assembled poems not included in Emerald Wounds, further extending Mansour’s English language presence. Two forthcoming translations of Mansour’s works of prose, The Satisfied Sarcophagi and Floating Islands reveal the author at her most intimate and transgressive.