Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes

Replete with image-laden longing, Francisco X. Alarcon's Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes/Sonetos a la locura y otras penas, a bilingual collection translated by Francisco Arag n, has calculated as well as accidental impact, where words separate from their speaker: ""when I say, `here hums another voice/ that dreams and delights in cornfields,'/ I'm unnailing the shutters/ trying to block the view."" Alarc n, who teaches at University of California at Davis, has won the American Book Award and the Chicano Literary Prize, among other honors. (Sept.)