Artists book publisher Girasol Press has published a bilingual edition of poems written by Argentinian political prisoners between 1975 and 1981, printed and designed to pay homage to the original anonymous authors. The poems in Inside were smuggled out of the military junta’s prisons and detention centres to Mexico City, where they were published in 1981 to raise funds for the political prisoners. Presenting them in English for the first time, Inside explores the displacement of being confined in place that characterises the carceral experience. First writing and then translation allows poetry to transcend the forced confinement of the prison cell, as these fugitive manuscripts have travelled from Argentina to Mexico, and now to the UK.

Translated and edited by Leire Barrera Medrano and Dan Eltringham, the collection came about through a collaboration with Dr Cornelia Gräbner from the School of Global Affairs at Lancaster University. During research at the Academic Center for the Memory of our América, she found parts of the manuscript of the original book Desde la cárcel, published in 1981 through a collaborative effort of groups of Argentine exiles in Mexico. Read more on the political prisoners here: Argentina: the sun always rises | Latin America Bureau

The collaborative edition with Girasol Press is part of Cornelia’s research project ‘Building Critical Hope at the Academic Center for the Memory of Our América’, funded by the British Academy. Read more on the background to Inside here: Inside: prison poems from Argentina | Latin America Bureau

Inside was printed on risograph as a limited and unique print run. You can order a copy here: Inside – GIRASOL PRESS.

A workshop which integrates relevant material from the CAMeNA with the poems is available on request, to be run by Dr Cornelia Gräbner. If interested, please contact c.grabner@lancaster.ac.uk.