María Monvel  (1897-1936)

Poem and translation: En un cuarto de hotel.

María Monvel was the pen name for the Chilean writer Ercilia Brito Letelier, also known as Tilda Brito de Donoso after she married the writer Armando Donoso. Gabriela Mistral wrote essays about her poetry, which was known for its intense lyricism and eroticism (Miranda 85-6)
Monvel was publishing widely in the 1920s and 1930s, and edited an anthology, Poetisas de América, in 1930.

“En un cuarto de hotel” is a sonnet written in alexandrine lines. The poem’s subject, a lovers’ tryst in a hotel room, is unusual.

As a critic and editor, Monvel valued boldness, difference, and experimentation. She admired the work of Marta Brunet, María Villar Buceta, Teresa de la Parra, Vaz Ferreira, Agustini, and the Comtesse Noailles (Monvel 10-11).

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