Dear Beth
A book of poetry of astonishing beauty by the most important Colombian poet of her generation.
Dear Beth,
in a story like this, the characters are fewer and fewer.
Do you remember all that time we spent together
when our conversations brought order to oblivion?
The list of our losses has grown so long that
it is now a language in its own right.
In the book, Andrea Kote explores emotional desolation—the life of the migrant in search of an unfulfilled promise—with irony, tenderness and raw realism. Through epistolary forms, the stark language of advertising and a dark lyricism, her poems give voice to the dreams, the rage, the melancholy and the paradox of return, which confirms that life is always elsewhere.
Author:
Andrea Cote
Translation-Editing:
Konstantinos Paleologos
Date of publication:
20/04/2026
Pages:
88
Dimensions:
17 x 24 εκ.
ISBN:
978-960-572-830-4
Publication:
2026
Categories:
Books, Foreign Poetry
Andrea Cote's book is a harrowing testimony, a torrent of the misery experienced by the immigrant. Beth is a part representing the whole, and Andrea is the voice of every immigrant—man and woman alike—who has nothing to hold onto and no reason to hope, surrounded by everything they lack: language, country, real estate, and an identity card number.
– Anthoula Daniel, Diastixo.grThe Colombian poet, inspired by her aunt's life, transports us to an era not so distant from our own and narrates things not so foreign to us. She neither idealizes nor canonizes, but the lyricism arises from the very strength of Aunt Beth.
– K Magazine
Andrea Cote
Andrea Cote (Colombia, 1981) is one of the most distinguished voices in Latin American poetry and prose. She studied Literature at the University of the Andes and received her PhD in Latin American Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published four collections of poetry and two works of prose. Her collection *Dear Beth* won her the 24th Casa de América Prize for American Poetry. Her poems have been translated into English, German, Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, Macedonian, Arabic, Polish, Greek, Russian and Chinese. She lives in the US and teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso.
