'The Sister' by Paola Kaufmann (Translation)

This work is the winner of the South American literary Prize, Casa de Las Americas. Very little is known about the life of poet Emily Dickinson. As a woman, she is most known as a recluse; as a poet, she is known for producing some of the most daring and original verse of the nineteenth century. This verse is often said to be her only contact with the outside world, but not much is understood about the inner world which gave rise to it. "My Sister Emily" probes into this world, revealing her tense relationship with her parents, her hidden passions and aspirations, and her secret views on religion and love, all seen through the eyes of one of those closest to her, her younger sister Lavinia. Based on authentic journals, documents and letters from the Dickinson family, "My Sister Emily" is a tribute to the struggle of a woman to vindicate the memory and perpetuate the legacy of her beloved sister. An intimate portrait of an extraordinary woman, it brings the 'mad woman' out of the attic and reveals her as the living, breathing human being she was, filling in a vital missing piece of the jigsaw, the enigma that is Emily Dickinson.

Translation by Dr William Rowlandson.