Roberto Bertoldo, Victims’ Cram by Roberto Bertoldo and translated by Steven Grieco-Rathgeb

This is poetry from Italy.

Roberto Bertoldo, Victims’ Cram by Roberto Bertoldo translated by Steven Grieco-Rathgeb is published by Chelsea Editions. This is a Book originally written in Italian. This was published in 2016.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780986106149E12.

Roberto Bertoldo, Victims’ Cram, translated by Steven Grieco-Rathgeb, sounds like a dense, abrasive Italian collection concerned with pressure, crowding, and injury. The title is difficult in a productive way: “victims” gives the book an ethical charge, while “cram” suggests compression, overfilling, perhaps the violence of too much being forced into too little space. Chelsea Editions often publishes serious contemporary European poetry, and this volume seems to belong to that demanding shelf. I would read Victims’ Cram for its intensity rather than ease. Some books make the reader feel crowded on purpose, because the world they address is crowded with damage, memory, and unresolved force. Translation here becomes a way to carry that pressure without pretending to tidy it.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.