The Trees
by Claudia Peña Claros
Translated by
In The Trees, Claudia Peña Claros piercingly renders a world in perpetual tumult, marked both by convulsive disputes over property and power and by nature's resistance in the face of human injustice. Shifting the focus of the short story away from the urban realm, she locates her vivid anti-narratives in the countryside and in small rural towns. Each story is its own uncanny ecosystem of reality-altering presences; each finds startling ways to catalogue ongoing tension and transformation. Staring deep into the past without taking her eyes from a future that may never arrive, Claudia Peña Claros raises her subtle, arresting voice with intimacy and power.
Claudia Peña Claros
Claudia Peña Claros (Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 1970) is a poet, fiction writer, and essayist. She is the author of four short story collections, two poetry collections, and a novel. Her latest book in Spanish is Antes, en cualquier parte (Parc Editores, 2023). In 2016, she won Bolivia's Franz Tamayo National Short Fiction Contest. One of her stories, "Verde," was made into a film by director Rodrigo Bellott.
Translator
Robin Myers
Robin Myers is a poet, translator, essayist, and 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellow. Her many translations include The Brush by Eliana Hernández- Pachón, What Comes Back by Javier Peñalosa M., A Strange Adventure by Eva Forest, Bariloche by Andrés Neuman, and In Vitro: On Longing and Transformation by Isabel Zapata. As a poet, she was included in the 2022 Best American Poetry anthology.