Description
TO 2040
Book Summary
An urgent open letter addressed to the future, TO 2040 is the latest work by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jorie Graham. From the window of a radiation therapy room, the poetic voice observes an apocalyptic world where rain must be translated and birds, connected to the network, replay recordings of their extinct ancestors. With cinematic precision, Graham acts as historian, cartographer, and prophet to reveal multiple potential futures, from reshaped coastlines to a close-up of a worm in the soil. This poetry collection confronts us with the profound beauty of what we are destroying while we search for an orientation that may no longer be within our reach.
What is it about?
The book begins with a question that resonates like an affirmation: "Are we / perhaps already extinct. Whose is / the map." From there, the poems are sung by someone writing those very lines while undergoing cancer treatment. What she sees on the other side of the glass are the remnants of a ruined earth. In this scenario, silence rumbles louder than speech and nature has been colonized by technology. Through a gaze that spans from aerial views of climate-altered coasts to close-ups of underground life, the author explores the loss of species, the disappearance of the names we gave them, and the soundtrack of sirens among the rubble. It is, in essence, a meditation on extinction and memory, written from the urgency of the present.
Main Themes
- The climate crisis and its apocalyptic consequences.
- The extinction of species and the loss of the language to name them.
- Technology as a substitute for nature and memory.
- The fragility of the human body in the face of illness and the planet's degradation.
- The search for orientation and meaning in a world in ruins.
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at readers of contemporary poetry engaged with the great issues of our time, especially climate change and the planet's survival. It will also interest those looking for a work that combines personal introspection with a prophetic and political vision, as well as followers of the career of Jorie Graham, one of the most influential voices in English-language poetry.
What this book offers
- A unique poetic perspective that fuses the intimate experience of illness with the global ecological crisis.
- Images of such visual and cinematic power that they transform the reader's perception of the future.
- An urgent reflection on the beauty of what is being lost and the need to name the catastrophe.
- An exercise in prophecy and memory that invites us to rethink our relationship with time and nature.
Technical Specifications
- Author: GRAHAM, JORIE
- Publisher: La Bella Varsovia
- Language: Spanish
- Topic: INDIVIDUAL POETS' POETRY, SOCIAL PROSPECTIVE, FUTUROLOGY
- Collection: LA BELLA VARSOVIA
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication date: January 2026
- Number of pages: 200
- Weight: 470 g
Editorial Assessment
TO 2040 is a work that transcends the boundaries of the poetic genre to become a document of our time. Jorie Graham succeeds in merging personal experience and collective catastrophe into a voice that is both intimate and universal. Her ability to create images that remain etched on the retina—a bird repeating a recording, rain that needs translation—makes this book a disturbing and necessary read. For audiences interested in poetry that engages with science, politics, and ecology, this work represents a pinnacle of contemporary lyricism.