BOREALIS
By Rocío Cerón
Translated by Dallin Law
Borealis is a deluge of improbable tableaux, the motionless anticipation before a dropped bomb. Part of a multivocal, multidisciplinary performance practice Rocío Cerón calls "expanded poetry," Borealis is formally daring and politically pressing. Translated from the Spanish by Dallin Law, the poetry collection’s grief-stricken landscape holds an urgency in its ghostly architecture punctuated by “brief glimpses of beauty.”
Rocío Cerón is a Mexico City-based poet, essayist, and visual sound artist. Cerón is the author of fourteen poetry collections, including Nudo vortex/Vortex Knot (Literal, 2015), Borealis (Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2016), Imperio/Empire (Ediciones Monte Carmelo, 2008), and Diorama (MacNally Jackson-Díaz Grey Editores, EUA, 2013; translated by Anna Rosenwong, winner of the Best Translated Book Award 2015 from Rochester University). Her work has been awarded the Owen National Poetry Prize and the National System of Art Creators of Mexico. Cerón was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2023 and received the Michael Rothenberg International Poets Grant in the same year. She has released three sound poetry albums, Sonic bubbles, Miiuni, and Speculari, and her sound, visual, and performance poetry pieces have been exhibited in international venues and museums including the Southbank Centre, London and the Museum of Modern Art, Mexico. Julio Ortega, one of Latin America’s most acclaimed literary critics, chose her as one of the best women poets of her generation.
Dallin Law is a translator from the Spanish. His translation of Rocío Cerón’s Dark Matter was published by Greying Ghost in 2026 and other translations have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Circumference, ANMLY, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere.