Ten Contemporary Spanish Women Poets

Ten Contemporary Spanish Women Poets (2020) by Terence Dooley — Condition: Fine (Crappy Old Books)

Step right up, lovers of syllables and seekers of soul-spark! Ten Contemporary Spanish Women Poets (Shearsman Books, 2020, ISBN: 9781848617223) is exactly what it says on the tin, except the tin is actually a sleek paperback, and instead of beans it contains radiant, multilingual lightning bolts disguised as poems. Terence Dooley corrals ten voices here, each a distinct compass point on the map of modern Spanish poetry—voices that whisper, roar, protest, flirt, unravel, and rebuild. Together they prove that contemporary Spain is not just a place of tapas and Almodóvar films, but also of sharp, fiery verse that can cut glass and mend hearts in the same breath.

This copy is sold by none other than Crappy Old Books, but (brace yourself) it’s actually in Fine condition. Yes, Fine! As in: no dog-ears, no scrawled marginalia that reads “buy milk,” no tragic battle scars from an encounter with a coffee mug. If anything, this book looks like it has been waiting patiently for you, lounging on the shelf in near-pristine dignity, quietly smug about its lack of blemishes. Don’t worry—it’s still Crappy Old Books, so you’ll get our usual aura of slightly anarchic bookselling charm, but this one is more “polished shoes at a poetry reading” than “muddy boots in the back row.”

Inside, the poems traverse everything from daily tenderness to political urgency, from quiet gestures to unflinching declarations. It’s a chorus of perspectives, an anthology that doesn’t just showcase poetry, but insists on poetry as lived life. Reading it is like being invited to ten kitchens, ten midnight walks, ten impassioned conversations—each with its own flavor, cadence, and hidden spark.

In short: this is poetry that refuses to be bland. A collection in fine condition, ready to accompany your fine (or perhaps not-so-fine) evenings. Ideal for readers who enjoy a little multiplicity with their metaphors, and for anyone curious about the many ways Spanish women are rewriting what poetry can be.

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