Translated by Max Ubelaker Andrade

Néstor Ponce’s Desapariencia no engaña (2010) inhabits the contradictions of presence and absence, imagination and memory. Its thirty-seven poems are testaments to the voices of those who were kidnapped, tortured and targeted for death and erasure in the concentration camps of Argentina’s 1976-1983 military junta. The book has been nationally recognised with the production of a ten thousand copy edition for distribution by the Ministry of Education to all of the nation’s schools and libraries. Disappearance without absence (2017) is the first English translation of Ponce’s landmark book. Sensitive renderings by Max Ubelaker Andrade allow the text to extend its reach beyond the boundaries of Argentina, Spain and Latin America, giving new readers the opportunity to encounter these poems and share in their unflinching witness to the harrowing complexities of violence, strength, memory and justice.

Work published within the framework of ‘Sur’ Translation Support Program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic.