Eléna Rivera

In Respect of Distance

Beard of Bees Publications

In Respect of Distance, by Eléna Rivera (#45: November, 2007), Chicago, IL

Beard of Bees Press is also pleased to offer an audio version of In Respect of Distance (mp3, 12Mb), read by the author.

In Respect of Distance, Reviewed by Alex Pestell, Signals Magazine, Issue 4, Spring 2008, UK

Mistakes, Accidents,
and a Want of Liberty

"...whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentedness, it only increased my desire to be free."

Suggestions at Every Turn

“In Suggestions at Every Turn, Eléna Rivera focuses tightly if fleetingly on the disjunctive moments of an intermittent quotidian, weaving an 'I,' 'you,' and 'we' into the fabric of this quietly dialogical work. The poems themselves--an amalgam of colloquial and 'official' language--turn frequently from the one to the other, suggesting the instability of the world they reflect.”
"There is a light touch as with a watercolor that feels almost insubstantial but then you come back to it. Reading the book [Suggestions at Every Turn,] seems to produce the state of reverie to which it refers. "

Disturbances in an Ocean of Air

Pamphlet from Phylum Press.

Unknowne Land

Unknowne Land takes as its subject the exploration a young woman's coming of age in several countries in which she reads and speaks different languages. Her "unknown land" appears at collisions of the charted grounds of this cultural heritage and a variety of nameless territories that are both historical and personal. The book, Kathleen Fraser writes, "is a brilliant, mature, deeply engaging work.”

Winner of the Frances Jaffer Book Award

Wale; or, the Corse

This book was inspired by the author's reading of Melville's Moby Dick and Charles Olson's Call Me Ishmael. This is poetry that merges the harmonies of words with an emotional intensity that over takes the reader with "silent storms."

A Botanist's Dream

A book written and illustrated by the author that includes photographs from the José & Martha Cuatrecasas collection.

Her Hand
A book written and illustrated by the author that includes photographs from the José & Martha Cuatrecasas collection.