Parra, Nicanor [key], 1914–2018, Chilean poet, grad. Univ. of Chile (1938), studied at Brown, Oxford. A poet who was also a mathematician and physicist and a professor of theoretical physics at the Univ. of Chile, he wrote verse influenced by existential philosophy and called his work “antipoetry” because it is written in clear, colloquial language and deals with issues of common interest. His frequent, engaging use of humor and satire mitigates the disillusion and anguish often expressed in his poetry. His works include Cancionero sin nombre [poetry without name] (1937), Poems and Antipoems (1954; tr. 1967), Versos de salón [parlor verses] (1962), Canciones rusas [Russian songs] (1967), Emergency Poems (tr. 1972), Antipoems, New and Selected (tr. 1985), and Hojas de Parra [leaves of Parra] (1985).
See P. Neruda et al., Pablo Neruda and Nicanor Parra Face to Face (tr. 1997); E. Grossman, The Antipoetry of Nicanor Parra (1975).
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