Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse, the sixth poetry collection by renowned Chilean poet Malú Urriola (1967-2023), showcases her intensely personal and innovative voice. Oscillating between deep self-reflection and playful Dadaist influences, Urriola’s poems delve into the emotional intensity of memory, whether through a vivid sexual encounter or profound personal grief, often morphing into surreal, imaginative leaps. Her work is filled with allusions to music, literature, and the natural world, exploring what it means to live and think as a poet in the modern world. As Urriola writes, her aim is ＂to navigate the instant, to delay its departure a while, fine-tuning the ear of the eye in that brief journey of presence.＂

Inspired by Dadaism’s embrace of unpredictability, Exquisite Corpse breaks from traditional poetic form, incorporating graphics, shape poems, aphorisms, philosophical musings, and free-form meditations on poetry itself. Her thoughts spiral and loop like jazz riffs, creating a rich and layered reading experience. Wry, intelligent, and moving, the collection explores themes of urban life, academic arrogance, female sexuality, existentialism, and the ever-present beauty and solace found in nature, music, and poetry.