I am delighted to announce that my translation from Spanish of Basque writer Mónica Crespo’s chilling story Instinct is in the 2023 Summer Issue of Ploughshares. What a venue to debut in! Instinct is from her collection Las madres secretas(The Secret Mothers), published by Editorial Base (Spain) and re-printed in a new edition in Buenos Aires by Dualidad.

Mónica Crespo (Bergara, Gipuzkoa) is a writer and creative writing teacher. She holds a degree in Sociology and completed her doctoral studies at the University of the Basque Country and the University of Buenos Aires. Her collection Las madres secretas (Editorial Base, 2017) was a finalist in the XV Setenil Prize 2018 for the Best Spanish Collection as well as in the 40th Tigre Juan Prize 2018. This collection quickly became central to studies of female monstrosity in 21st-century Spanish literature. A new edition was published in Buenos Aires by Editorial Dualidad (2022). And a second edition from Editorial Base is also forthcoming in Spain. Follow Mónica Crespo on Twitter and Instagram.

Embedded in “The Secret Mothers” is a keen critique of patriarchal attitudes towards women and their bodies. In a time when the right of women’s reproductive rights is again under debate, Crespo’s urgent tales explore the visceral, embodied experience of motherhood, the generational impact of men’s betrayal of women, and women’s betrayals of each other and their own creative (not just procreative) natures. It is an urgent read. 

Thank you to the writer and guest editor of this issue of Ploughshares, Tom Perrotta, for choosing “Instinct”, the story of a traumatized mother whose baby prefers hot blood to warm milk. When a writer of Tom’s caliber loves a story as much as I do, my heart sings the Hallelujah chorus.

You can (and should!) buy this issue of Ploughshares here. My translation from Spanish of the entire collection is #SeekingAPublisher.