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Just announced! Yale University Press will publish Mark's current project:

ART AS A WEAPON: Tina Modotti and the Mexican Cultural Renaissance

Coming to bookstores in 2025!

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A new look at the cinematic life of the influential 20th century photographer, from her beginnings as an Italian immigrant and Hollywood silent film actress to her later years as a communist activist and Soviet agent in the Spanish Civil War, focusing on the period in 1920s Mexico City when Modotti joined a group of artists including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and Edward Weston, who married art and politics in the intellectual ferment following the Mexican Revolution.

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NERUDA: The Biography of a Poet by Mark Eisner

NERUDA: THE BIOGRAPHY OF A POET
(The Poet's Calling)

 

LA BIOGRAFÍA EN ESPAÑOL


“A definitive biography and instant classic.”
Library Journal

"Reads like a beautifully written novel: attentive to scene, momentum, and rich with evocative details.”
— Cristina García, Dreaming in Cuban



For more than 20 years, has steeped himself in Pablo Neruda's life and poetry. Now he has brought the legendary Chilean alive in a new book, Neruda: The Biography of a Poet. Infused with sensitive analysis and vibrant storytelling, this comprehensive, moving biography reads like a novel. Find out more about the book and explore Mark's other work and resources throughout this site.

 

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RESISTENCIA: Poems of Protest and Revolution

A Red Poppy Project
Edited by Mark Eisner and Tina Escaja
Introduction by Julia Alvarez
Published by Tin House Books

RESISTENCIA: POEMS OF PROTEST AND REVOLUTION

 

"Resistencia could not be more timely. It is a stunning collection of revelations and witness. My only complaint: I wish it could be ten times longer. Indispensable.”
— Luis Alberto Urrea


With a powerful and poignant introduction from Julia Alvarez, Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution is an extraordinary collection, rooted in a strong tradition of protest poetry and voiced by icons of the movement and some of the most exciting writers today. The poets of Resistencia explore feminist, queer, Indigenous, and ecological themes alongside historically prominent protests against imperialism, dictatorships, and economic inequality. Within this momentous collection, poets representing every Latin American country grapple with identity, place, and belonging, resisting easy definitions to render a nuanced and complex portrait of language in rebellion.

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Mark Eisner

Mark Eisner
Mark Eisner has spent most of the past two decades working on projects related to Pablo Neruda. He conceived, edited, and was one of the principal translators for The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems (City Lights, 2004). He wrote the introduction to City Lights' first ever English translation of Neruda's venture of the infinite man, a project he developed. He is producing a documentary film on Neruda, with support from Latino Public Broadcasting. An initial version, narrated by Isabel Allende, won the Latin American Studies Association Award of Merit in Film. Mark was also involved in the early stages of the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco, and continues to lead Red Poppy, a literary non-profit focused on Latin American poetry. Their anthology RESISTENCIA: Poems of Protest and Revolution was published by Tin House Books on September 15, 2020. He is now at work on a new book about the life and work of revolutionary photographer Tina Modotti in 1920's Mexico.



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